


Winter Of Our Discontent

by FicNewtons



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Angst, Caretaking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, M/M, Multi, OT3, Post S3, Sickfic, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:27:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23980819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FicNewtons/pseuds/FicNewtons
Summary: Alucard knows one thing to be true: that everything hurts. After one too many traumatic experiences, he seeks out the only medicine that can cure all pain— the love and comfort of two good friends. Once he finds them, everything will be alright.As long as nobody dies.
Relationships: Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades, Trephacard - Relationship
Comments: 28
Kudos: 191





	1. Chapter 1

The days were long, but the nights were longer. 

Endless pacing up and down the hallways offered no peace to his soul, finding no respite in the various rooms and passages torn asunder, debris still littering the floor. Glass laid strewn about the ground like ghosts, glinting in the moonlight as he wandered restlessly, searching for some sort of calm or clarity; none came, no matter where he looked. His low, echoing footsteps rang like sirens in his ears, the silence screaming louder than any man could, surpassing even the howls of a lonely young man with grief in his heart. There was no peace for him here.

He’d hardly slept at all through the nights, saving his tired moments for the midday when he could drift off briefly only when his body could go on no more. He had already realized that it wasn’t a sustainable way of living, but it was all he could do to survive. 

There was nothing keeping Alucard in the castle anymore.

Empty hallways seemed less and less inviting as the days went on, and he couldn’t find comfort in their blaring silence any longer. Through years of his childhood he’d found peaceful respite in the enormity of the castle, always managing to find a new spot to be alone, where even his mother couldn’t think to find him. It was his haven, and he had loved its vast expanse, always the little explorer. The thought of it now did little more than bring a bittersweet smile to his face amid an otherwise morose expression he wore most of the time. 

He tried to think of a reason to stay. Desperately. He conjured up endless thoughts of the good times—his mother chasing him around and around, his father’s roaring laughter echoing down the halls as he watched. But now, the memories burned in his eyes like tears. The laughter wasn’t there anymore, leaving no mark on the castle to be remembered by. The only thing Alucard could still see with his eyes was a scorched floor in his childhood bedroom amid crumbled walls and broken furniture where a part of him had died and bloody bedsheets where they’d killed the rest of him. There was no reason to stay. He had already nearly made up his mind before he’d pained himself with the memories, but indulged himself in self-pity anyway in one last ditch effort to find any attachment to what once was his home. But no matter what incentives he had to continue life at the castle, there were always two good reasons always on his mind to leave; two reasons that were decorously staked outside his front door. 

He was certain that he couldn’t stay anymore. There was somewhere he needed to go. Someone he needed to find. 

He wondered if the castle would be safe without him. He wondered, too, if he even really cared. He had promised to take care of both it and the Belmont hold and all of the knowledge therein, but this pain had never been part of the equation. He didn’t sign up for this. The ache in his heart had always been a sure thing, but the crippling fear he hadn’t anticipated, and with its grip growing tighter and tighter on his heart, his only solution was to go and risk whatever intrusions would occur while he was away. Though with his choice of lawn decoration, he figured that would likely not be a problem. 

He had packed a bag before he knew it. Just a few essentials to get him on his way. He didn’t expect to be gone for _too_ long, but he also knew he had quite a search ahead of him. But he was smart. He was ingenuitive. He would find his way. 

Those three thoughts were the most positive he’d had in months about himself or anything else. He threw on his jacket and with only his bag, his fastened sword, and those three thoughts, he stepped out the door. He dared not turn his head to the side, keeping his eyes straight ahead, looking forward—looking only to the future as he left the past behind him.

He was fortunate enough to come upon a trader early on who was willing to part with a mare for much less than Alucard figured she was worth. He considered his bargain to be a good first sign that the trip would be successful, and though he didn’t ordinarily believe in signs and superstitions, he clung to this one like it was the only thing keeping him alive. It may well have been.

He eagerly set off to the nearest place he could think to pick up a trail, hoping desperately that someone would know something useful—anything at all, really. He had never been one for prayer in his life, but he couldn’t help but catch himself whispering quiet pleas under his breath, though he wasn’t sure to whom.

_Please let them be safe… Please let them be alright…_

_******_

It had gone on for so long already that the silent ride had begun to piss Trevor off more than he could explain in words, though explaining things in words was never his strong suit to begin with. Getting angry, however, was. And on this day, he was feeling particularly skilled. 

“Will you say something already?” he shouted, reactively jerking the reins. “I feel like I’m being taken off to prison or some-fucking-thing.”

He watched Sypha as she languidly turned her head toward him, her arms crossed as she leaned back against the bench seat.

“Keep your eyes on the road,” she said evenly.

He nearly exploded, but caught himself with his mouth open, just as he was about to let loose a stream of abuses.

 _Don’t,_ he chastised himself internally.

He exhaled, feeling some of the heat fade away from his cheeks. He didn’t know what was coming over him.

 _She’s just hurting,_ he told himself. _You are, too, you idiot._

Though he wasn’t very good at the feelings aspect of human communication, he could recognize when there were hurt feelings in the air. It felt like that was the case most of the time, recently.

Every day, there was a new group of monsters terrorizing a village, and every day, they’d quietly pass through in their wagon. Seldom did they fight anymore, save for the times when night creatures directly approached them. But it was never the same as it was before. The novelty of adventure had worn off and Trevor could tell it was weighing on Sypha. There was no more quipping. No more fun, strategic plays between them in battle. There was only hacking and slashing and burning and freezing and dying. The theatrics were over.

He could feel it, too. Especially the last few days, he’d noticed himself having far less energy than before and his brain felt as if it were hidden away in fog. His whole body ached. He’d almost find it funny if it wasn’t so strange, but he’d felt every brand and variety of depression there was to feel, but this one was new to him. Feeling it so deep in his bones was something he wasn’t used to. He made no mention of it to Sypha, though. He was used to feeling down, and even if these feelings were new to him, he knew he needed to be strong for her. 

Trevor reached out, taking her hand in his, letting her squeeze it gently in her lap.

“Why won’t you say anything to me?”

She didn’t look at him. She just shifted her gaze from the road to the trees to the sky.

“I just don’t know what to say,” she said with a sigh. “I’m thinking.”

“What are you thinking?”

She let her head rest against the back of the bench, watching the clouds pass by. 

“We should have never left.”

Trevor gave her hand a little squeeze. “I know.”

Finally, she brought herself to look at him. Her eyes were rimmed red, exhaustion and stress obviously taking its toll on her. She looked beaten down to her soul. It hurt Trevor to see her that way. Her usually bright and energetic self, ready for anything, was hiding away beneath this downtrodden girl who looked as though she’d never felt a drop of joy in her life, and it gave Trevor a pain deep in his chest to be unable to make her feel alright again.

“We can go back, you know,” he said, watching her expression for any sign of change. There wasn’t any.

“What makes you think he’d even have us back?”

“Of course he would. He’s our friend.”

“How do you know that?” she snapped. “We abandoned him.”

“We didn’t—“ Trevor stuttered a bit, unsure if he believed what he was saying. “We didn’t abandon him. He wanted to stay.”

“We should have fought harder for him to come with us.”

Trevor sighed. “I know…” he said. It was all he could think to say, and he knew it wasn’t enough. “He’s probably been so thrilled that we’re out of his hair that he’s forgotten about us by now. Probably having parties every night, the maniac,” he added, throwing out any encouraging words he could think of in the hopes that something might stick and make her feel better.

Her expression finally changed and, to his horror, her eyebrows knit together, her big doe-like eyes suddenly full of sad concern. “Why would you say that?”

“I would say that because…” He thought for a moment. “Because I’m an idiot, that’s why.”

A small smile perked up the corners of her mouth. “You’re not an idiot, Trevor.”

He laughed his self-deprecating laugh. He knew the one thing that would always get her to smile was talking down about himself.

“Thank you, Sypha. I am, though.” He squeezed her hand again. “That’s why I have my big-brained partner to do all the hard thinking for me. That’s why we’re Belnades and Belmont, and not the other way around.”

After what felt like weeks, Sypha smiled and laughed, a glimmer of her old self overtaking the gloomy cloud hanging over her.

Trevor smiled too. They could both feel the relief.

“I think we’re gonna be ok, Sypha.”

She smiled. “I think so, too.”

They rode on in silence for a bit longer, though much of the weight had been lifted from before. Evidently, though, they weren’t entirely rid of it. Trevor’s horrible fatigue persisted, causing him to drop the reins slightly, letting his arm rest in his lap. His forearms ached something fierce seemingly out of nowhere. He tried to play it off, but Sypha was much too observant for that.

“Is everything alright, Trevor?”

He put on his cool, unbothered facade, trying his damndest not to let her see him falter.

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” he said. “Just a bit tired. It’s been a long trip.”

She scrutinized him, noticing after a moment that his face had grown a bit more pale than usual.

“Are you sure?” she asked. She laid her hand over the back of his. “Your hand feels awfully warm. Do you need to rest for a bit?”

“No, no, nothing like that. I’m fine, I promise,” he said with a smile, his dismissal of her concerns not all that convincing as he wavered a bit in his seat.

“I can drive for a while if you feel like taking a break,” she insisted. “Are you sure you feel ok?”

“Don’t worry, Sypha.” He smiled reassuringly. “Like I said, everything is going to be ok.”

*****

For someone with at least marginally superhuman resilience and endurance, Alucard was having an absolute bitch of a time on the horse between the chafing and the fatigue in his legs and the stress in his back from sitting in the saddle for so long and the strain in his hands from the reins. He couldn’t imagine how long it’d take to get used to, but he hoped to the highest power that it’d be soon. He found himself periodically hopping off to give his body a break, rubbing his sore inner thighs, hoping to alleviate some of the discomfort. Luckily for him, his mare was fairly mellow and didn’t require much control, because he was discovering that after years of being out of practice, riding a horse had proven to be much more difficult than he remembered.

Even in his discomfort, he never stopped moving for very long. He’d made such progress already, finding a trail to follow after stopping in only one nearby town. He’d spoken to anyone he could find, even daring to bother old women and children for information, though he was a bit rusty with his social skills as well. Taverns proved especially useful. He knew that if they’d passed through, they’d have stopped there. There wasn’t a chance in hell a barkeeper wouldn’t have seen them if they’d passed through. Thankfully, they were apt to getting into trouble, and apparently people in the town were hesitant to forget the man who’d gotten into a pretty violent scrap over a cat. Discretion had never been their strong suit, Alucard knew.

 _Thank god those idiots are so loud,_ he thought to himself, laughing as he went.

After a long stint of walking beside his mare, he sighed heavily, preparing for the beating his poor legs were about to be subjected to. Hesitantly, he jumped atop the horse, steadying himself in the saddle. Instantly, the ache was back. His whole body felt it. He had half a mind to jump back down, but his aching feet and mud-covered boots weren’t likely to be able to handle the trip for much longer than the rest of his body. He knew he wasn’t the greatest at keeping time, but it had already been several that he’d been on the road with only a few opportunities presented to rest and even fewer accepted. He’d had a single night in an inn, but he’d hardly slept at all, his mind never able to slow down long enough to drift off, trying to think only of finding what he was looking for. Focusing on it kept his mind busy, which was critical to his sanity at this point. Much worse thoughts constantly nagged at him, but he kept them at bay. He pictured his friends’ faces instead. He imagined himself meeting them again, running the scenario in his head over and over again. He practiced what he’d say a thousand times. 

He conjured up their images in his mind. Their smiles. Would he see those bright, beaming expressions again? Would they be excited to see him? Would they care? What would they say? Would it be just like it used to be? Or would they be strangers?

He didn’t want to think about that. He couldn’t let himself get bogged down in those hypotheticals. He forced himself to think positively, and those thoughts kept him safe on his worst nights on the trip. He just wanted to see them again and every passing moment that he was alone brought him more pain, but more excitement. He was getting closer. He could feel it. It felt like warm butterflies in his chest, ready to break free. He found himself looking forward to the future, a luxury he hadn’t had in months. There was something inside him that he just couldn’t keep from being excited.

Hell, he wouldn’t even mind if he was called something rude when he saw them again. He might even like it. He smiled at the idea as he rode on, the next town not too far.

_There is hope for me after all._

_*****_

The nights had grown longer and longer, and more frequent interruptions from night creatures had fought off sleep as viciously as Trevor and Sypha had fought them in turn. They were running themselves ragged, every few hours it seemed they were encountering a new horde, growing more and more exhausted with each new encounter.

Tonight was unfortunately no different.

The sun had just barely set, and both were surprised to see a fresh group out of the corners of their eyes just as they had settled into a spot to pull over for the night. Trevor bolted quickly up with Sypha following quickly behind. They quickly crawled to the edge of the wagon, cautious so as to not give away their presence immediately.

“Sypha,” Trevor whispered. “How many do you see?”

“Three from the back,” she estimated. “But there are others. I can hear them coming around the side.”

Trevor peeked up over the front bench, careful to keep out of view. “There are two more in the front. Why are there so many?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, unable to take her eyes off of the ones approaching from behind. 

Trevor watched the creatures and gritted his teeth, feeling momentarily faint as the creatures in front of him doubled. Or at least, he thought they had. He rubbed his eyes, feeling a haze overtake him, swirling in his brain like thick, storming clouds as he struggled to focus. This wasn’t the first time he’d felt this come over him, but it was certainly the most inconvenient. Being the self-sufficient hero that he fancied he was, he’d not made a mention of his frequent dizzy spells, clamminess, aching body, or overwhelming delirium to Sypha. He kept on pushing himself to fight and feign normalcy for as long as he could, and now that they were trapped and he hardly had any energy at all, he was realizing his mistake. But it was too late now. 

Sypha had noticed him waver again as they kept their eyes on the creatures encircling them. She could see tiny beads of sweat forming in his hairline, watching him struggle to hold his body upright, though she knew he’d never admit that he was having trouble. She focused instead on the monsters for the time being. Her heart pounded as she mentally prepared to have this fight alone.

Trevor, true to form, would do his best to prove her wrong. “Alright, it looks like I’ll have to take the front. You can take the back, I presume?” he whispered.

She nodded, her confidence waning as she saw Trevor’s hand tremble. 

Everything happened so quickly. The two leapt from the wagon on their respective sides, sudden flashes of metal and magic and claws exploded like fireworks, the trees around them cast in bright, violent lights that gave the area an aura of wildfire as the opposing forces clashed. Sypha and Trevor started strong, each managing to down their respective first creature rather quickly. Their fight was much more desperate, the stakes growing higher and higher as the peripheral creatures converged on them.

All of their arrogance in previous fights seemed to be coming back to haunt them. Sypha struggled to keep up with their attacks, swiftly dodging relentless slashings and gnashing teeth, haphazardly manifesting razor-sharp shards of ice, doing her best to aim, but finding that it was much harder to hit them when she was being barraged with claws on all fronts. She managed to land a few solid hits on the three that were pursuing her, buying her enough room to deliver a fatal blow to the head of one. She felt relieved when its body hit the ground, but her relief was quickly replaced by another night creature. 

Trevor’s troubles were similarly alarming. With four creatures surrounding him, the lashing of his whip was doing little more than keeping them at bay. He’d managed a few scrapes on them, but they crept closer and closer, managing to back him against the wagon. The horses bayed and shrieked, heaving against their harnesses as the wagon jolted when a creature got too good of a grip on Trevor’s arm, thrusting him against the side. With his free arm, he was able to retrieve a knife from his belt, plunging it up into the creature’s throat. It released its grip, leaving Trevor with only a few small lacerations from its claws. He stumbled and took a deep breath, lashing out with his whip again to ward off the others, giving him a moment to regain his balance.

_Shit…_

He watched the others converge on him as soon as the opportunity arose. Just in time, he wrapped the whip thong around his hand, holding the stock and dagger tight in the other, sharply jabbing the cord in between into the throat of one of the creatures, forcing it back, narrowly managing to slip out between them. He wasted no time, hastily encircling the beast’s neck with the whip, driving it to the ground before cleaving the top of its head. He made an effort to pull the blade from its skull, but before it would come free, the other creatures had already corrected their path, coming straight for him, the creature’s body not deterring them in the least. 

Trevor wiped sweat from his brow, panting hard as he leapt quickly aside to dodge their next barrage. He paused for a moment, catching a glimpse of Sypha, watching as she fumbled with some conjured fire, temporarily blinding one of the night creatures, but doing almost no significant damage to it as it continued to come at her like a hungry dog. Trevor clenched his jaw, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest. 

For the first time in their adventure, even after everything they’d been through, with the creatures looming over him and his body on its last legs, Trevor finally felt as though he knew real despair.

*******

Aching legs had prompted Alucard to finally stop for the night. Internally, he was relentlessly chastising himself for quitting so easily, but by this point the chaffing the saddle had caused his thighs was getting unbearable, becoming fairly convinced that all of the skin inside his legs from his knees to his groin was a mere ten minutes’ ride from being rubbed off completely. He hopped down from the horse and began to walk, hoping there was a better place to camp than the roadside. He wasn’t sure he had it in him, but he thought for sure he could hear some running water nearby and was determined to walk just a little bit farther if it meant refilling his water and having a good wash.

He was infinitely grateful that no one else was on the road, convinced he was walking like a person who’d just shit their breeches, but the raw, tender flesh of his legs seared like wounds burned with fire and he couldn’t bear to walk upright any longer. He waddled uncomfortably along, leading his horse on as the sound as the rushing water grew louder and louder. 

He paused for a moment, bringing a finger to his lips and with a gentle “ _shh,_ ” urging his mare to be still. He waited, listening for a sound he thought he heard in the distance— just one shout. It was quite faint and far off, but he was certain he heard it. He looked as far down the road as he could, but trees obscured the way.

He kept still, his ears pricked up, listening closely for the sound again over the running water. It was quiet for a moment before a sharp, metallic sound pierced the air, just loud enough to reach Alucard. Several thoughts ran through his mind simultaneously, and he knew it was imperative that he act quickly if he decided to act. 

Surely the right course of action was to investigate and assist. Right?

But he was _so_ close to sleep that he desperately needed, and his aching body screamed for rest. He was the first to admit that he’d rather have died than gotten on the horse again, and besides, there was noise now, but whatever was being killed would be killed soon enough and he’d have the peace he needed. Besides, anyone travelling at this time was probably no more than a highway robber waiting to pounce on under-cautious stock carriages full of goods ripe for resale, he figured, and assumed they’d found a victim and would be on their way shortly. But was he okay with that? As callous a thought that was, he discerned quite a sizeable distance between him and the noise, and he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to get there in time if he _did_ try to help. And god, did it sound easy to just ignore it. 

He clenched his fists.

_That’s not who you are._

He took a deep breath, his legs screaming one last time, warning him not to go, to sit and relax instead, but he ignored the pain and stuck a reluctant foot into the stirrup, quickly hoisting himself up. It was getting dark, and he knew that the last of the light would soon be gone and travelling back to the water would become exponentially more difficult, especially under the cover of the trees hiding the moonlight. Hopefully, a traveler had just come upon an angry animal, and he could quickly resolve the situation and get back in time. Knowing his luck, he assumed the chances of that were almost zero. Gripping the hilt of his sword in its sheath tightly in one hand and the reins in the other, he kicked his heels into the mare, setting her off on a quick sprint. Luckily, though the physical aspect wasn’t quite as easy, the mental aspect of riding a horse had stuck with him and it came back to him quite quickly. 

He raced through the trees, birds scattering into the air as he blazed through the road, small animals dodging and darting out of the horse’s path, listening closely, hearing the noise grow louder. It wasn’t until he heard the afflicted cry of a woman that he grew uneasy. He could see a glow of fire in the distance, getting closer and closer to the blaze of two lanterns afront a wagon and sizeable, sporadic flashes of blue and red flames, his heart sinking faster and faster as he approached.

By the time he could make out the first night creature, he’d drawn his sword and was ready to start swinging. When he saw Trevor stagger out from behind the carriage, a beast bounding onto his chest, nearly crushing him and cutting him up concurrently, he was ready to start killing.

By the time Trevor noticed him, Alucard had skewered the creature, his sword zipping through the air to pierce its skull with such speed it knocked the creature several yards away. Trevor was frozen on the ground, convinced that he was hallucinating a black-coated hero with cascading blonde hair atop a horse. For a moment, he truly believed that he had died and looked upon an angel. Before they could say anything to one another, both mens’ attention was snapped to the treeline, where an especially massive burst of flame exploded. Sypha, after having attempted to use fire against the night creature she was entangled with, had missed, singing only its fur, and was now held against the tree behind her by the beast’s enormous claws as he wound up for what would inevitably be a battle-ending strike to her face. She struggled to free herself, but seeing the silhouette of its claw against the night sky forced her to close her eyes and prepare.

Trevor and Alucard both bolted, blades in hand, practically lunging at the creature as they simultaneously plowed their blades through its head. The creature let out a hideous, shuddering groan as they each gave a little extra push. When Sypha reopened her eyes, all she could see was a long sword plunging upward from the beast’s mouth and a knife peeking out from its maw, coming dangerously close to Sypha’s face. Before she knew it, the blades retracted and the creature fell to the ground.

She caught herself against the tree, struggling to regain her breath when she suddenly forgot how to breathe altogether for a moment, finally glimpsing Alucard’s golden hair, drifting around his alabaster face. She tried to say something, but her throat had been crushed pretty harshly, forcing a few violent coughs out of her rather than words as she fought to get her breath back. 

Trevor, filled with a renewed reserve of adrenaline spun around, narrowly jabbing his knife into the belly of a beast as it lunged at them. The monster hunched over, giving Alucard a perfect opportunity to punch his sword down through its skull before kicking it off their blades and away from them. He could see a few others readying to attack. He tightened his grip on his sword and held his free hand out to Sypha.

“You alright?” he asked.

“I’m better now, thanks,” she said, taking his hand as she pushed herself back to her feet. There wasn’t much time to recoup, the nearby creatures readying to attack, unleashing ghastly cries from their hideous jaws. Sypha took a deep breath, her throat still burning, but she knew she couldn’t stop. She made a move, her hands quickly forming a sign, channelling all her energy into her fingers. Trevor and Alucard stood at her sides, brandishing their weapons, the whole trio ready to attack, quickly diving in to action, staying together this time rather than splitting up. They were stronger this way. They could all feel the difference. Even Alucard, who hadn’t missed the constant fighting at all felt a little glad he got to slay monsters by their sides again. He couldn’t help but let a small smile slip across his face as he hacked and slashed away at the beasts in front of him, finding that he felt much more satisfaction in killing the creatures knowing he was defending his friends again. He couldn’t stop himself, taking down creature after creature with Trevor and Sypha’s help, whip flailing and magic flying until there were none left in front of him, his sword having taken no mercy on any of them.

He turned, spotting a clever one that must have slipped past him and was coming for Trevor. Alucard readied his sword to strike, but Trevor hit first, slashing the beast’s throat before watching it crumple to the ground. They all breathed a sigh of relief, panting hard as the adrenaline surged through the three of them. Sypha turned to Alucard, about to sarcastically welcome him back to the group when Trevor suddenly stumbled forward, his whip and knife tumbling to the ground as he staggered, planting a knee into the ground before finally collapsing completely.

“Trevor!” they cried simultaneously, rushing to his side.

Alucard knelt down next to him, gently lifting his head into his lap. He was completely passed out. Alucard gently pushed back his hair off his face, the strands clinging to his sweat-glistening skin. Sypha placed her hand on his forehead.

“He’s burning up,” she gasped.

“I can feel the heat coming off him,” Alucard marveled. “I’m surprised he could stand at all, let alone fight.”

Sypha’s knuckles turned white. “I don’t know why he didn’t tell me.”

Alucard reached out and squeezed her arm, offering her a reassuring smile. “Because he’s an idiot. It’s not your fault, Sypha.”

She smiled, a small chuckle escaping, but her eyes didn’t cheer up. “I thought he was just stressed. It’s been… _difficult_ since we left.”

Alucard gently rubbed her arm. “For right now, we have to get his fever down. I’m afraid he’s strained himself too much and is going to overheat, and god knows he can’t handle any more brain damage.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. She’d missed their petty, childish insults, no matter how much they used to get on her nerves. She reached out and tucked some more rogue hair behind Trevor’s ear. His eyebrows were knit together, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe normally. He looked so pained, and it broke her heart to see. 

Alucard watched him, resting a hand on his chest. He could feel Trevor’s heart beating rapidly, his skin glowing bright red where it wasn’t nearly as pale as Alucard. He truly felt like he was on fire, and just as quickly as Alucard had felt relieved to find them, he began to worry. Classic Trevor, ruining his good time.

“We have to get his fever down,” Alucard said, looping his arm under Trevor’s as he propped him up to his feet. Sypha rushed to his other side, sliding under his other arm, trying to help push him up. “He can’t stay at this temperature for long.”

“Right,” Sypha said as they slowly made their way over to the wagon, careful to support Trevor between them, though she herself wasn’t feeling the most stable at the moment. “What do you think we should do?”

“I passed a small river on the way here. Maybe with the lamps on the wagon we’ll be able to make it back in the dark and get some cool water on him,” he said, sounding more confident than he felt. His mother practiced medicine and she was damn good at it, yet still Alucard had seen dozens succumb to illnesses like this. He only hoped Trevor was stronger than that.

They trudged forward but were suddenly halted when Sypha stumbled. Alucard managed to catch by the hand with his free hand, steadying her until she got her balance back.

“Sypha?”

“I’m fine, sorry. Just tired,” she said, waving him off with a smile. “That’s it. Really.”

Alucard raised his eyebrow. “I’m seeing a pattern here,” he said with a hint of skepticism.

“I’m really fine, I swear,” she insisted.

Alucard watched her try to work her way back under Trevor’s other side to prop him up, but before she could get in position, he reached down, scooping up Trevor into his arms like he weighed no more than a large child. Sypha was shocked.

“He’s so… how are you—“

“Sorry,” Alucard said bashfully. “I… could’ve carried him by myself. I thought you’d like to help.”

Sypha watched him in disbelief as he made his way over to the wagon with much more ease than they had had together.

“Oh, and please don’t tell him I carried him like this,” Alucard said, turning back to her as she followed behind him. “I’m pretty sure he’d kill me in my sleep.”

Trevor made a few distressed groans in his feverish stupor, as if to agree, though Alucard knew he was too thoroughly unconscious to hear them.

She smiled. “I’ll just… Save it for a day when I need a good laugh.”

He stepped up into the wagon quite effortlessly, laying him on their makeshift bedding, gently situating his head on the pillow. Sypha climbed in behind him, squatting down beside Alucard. She gently ran her fingers along Trevor’s knuckles. She could feel his hands trembling. He sounded terrible and he looked even worse. Small, pained whining sounds escaped his mouth, his jaw clenched as though gripped by nightmares. Sypha hadn’t had a fever of that caliber, but she could only imagine what he was feeling, if he felt anything at all.

“I’ll leave it to you, but you should get his tunic and boots off before he overheats,” Alucard said flatly.

“I don’t think I can lift him on my own,” she said. “Can you help me?”

“Of course,” he said, knowing full well that discovering the fact that Alucard had undressed him would cause Trevor to kill him again, even more thoroughly than he would kill him for carrying him in the first place.

Careful not to disturb him too much, Alucard lifted Trevor’s back off the ground, sitting him nearly upright while Sypha wrestled his shirt from his pants. Trevor ragdolled forward with every move they made, making it quite difficult for Sypha to work the tunic up and over his head and shoulders while Alucard held him up, though she did eventually succeed. Alucard laid him gently back down, resting his head softly on the pillow while Sypha worked off Trevor’s boots, tossing them aside. She watched as Alucard quickly hopped out of the wagon, only to reappear moments later to hitch his mare to the back.

“Do you have any water?” Alucard asked.

“A little, but not much. Do you need some?”

“No, but you do. Please hydrate yourself before you both die in this wagon,” he said as he hopped onto the driving bench, snatching up the reins and urging the horses swiftly onward, as quickly as they could safely go. He kept turning back to check on them, knowing full well there was nothing pleasant to see. He could hear Trevor’s labored groans as Sypha whispered quietly to him. Neither Alucard nor Trevor could hear what she was saying, but Alucard could feel how desperate she was to make everything alright—or at least, convince everyone that everything was alright. The only person she’d never be able to convince was herself.

Thankfully, the ride passed by speedily, her nerves calming just a bit at the sound of rushing water. As soon as the carriage came to a stop, she hopped out of the back with a bucket and rag in hand, hurriedly filling it from the stream. 

Alucard wandered behind her, thinking he’d wait by the back of the wagon for her to return until he noticed something. He flew over to her, carefully placing a hand on her arm, his other hand floating cautiously above a frayed tear in her shirt across the top of her shoulder doused in blood. A nasty looking gash lay underneath.

“Sypha, you’re hurt,” he said, reaching to take the full bucket from her. 

She winced slightly as he wrested it from her. “It’s not bad, it’s just a scrape. It looks worse than it is.”

“Sypha…” He took the rag from her other hand, laying it across the side of the bucket and pointed harshly toward the back of the wagon. “Go. Sit.”

He guided her with a hand on her back as she trudged laboriously back. Though she tried her best to hide it, Alucard wouldn’t have been able to miss that limp if he tried.

“I swear to god, you two would literally die and then say you were fine,” he chastised, setting the bucket on edge of the wagon as he helped Sypha climb up. 

She laughed softly. “You’re probably right. Sorry.”

They crawled over to Trevor, who was still sweating visibly.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said dipping half the rag into the water. “Sorry to ask, but do you mind?” he asked, holding up the rag by the dry corners.

Sypha plopped herself down, leaning against the wall with a grunt. Her hand flew into a sign and the wet part of the rag froze solid right before their eyes. 

“Thanks,” he said, folding the frozen part into the middle before wrapping the dry part about it. He placed the ice rag across Trevor’s forehead, making him unconsciously wince and squirm. Alucard put a hand on his chest, partially to calm him, but partially to get a feel for his temperature. That made Trevor shudder even more, goosebumps appearing across his skin as he instinctively shied away from his touch.

“You may be colder than the ice,” Sypha smirked.

Alucard scoffed. “Perhaps. Maybe my read is off, then, but he’s even hotter than before.”

Sypha placed a hand on Trevor’s forearm, quickly recoiling. “That’s not good.”

“Have you two come across any doctors on your way?”

“None,” Sypha lamented. “We sought one out for some typical headache remedies, but it seems all of the villages around here travel north to see some doctor in the city, but that’s a ways away.”

Alucard gazed out the front of the wagon, the stars barely visible above the road. He knew what to do, but he knew that saying it would be resigning himself to a miserable time.

He sighed. “We should take him back to the castle.”

“The castle?”

“My mother had a study there. Much of what she had was burned in Gresit, but much of what was lost was duplicated before she began her practice. She wanted to ensure her things would be in order whether she was in the village or with my father. Surely there’s useful information there.”

“A very thorough woman,” Sypha remarked.

Alucard smiled sadly. “Indeed.”

He scooted closer to Sypha and discarded his long jacket, the warm night beginning to make him sweat. He was much more comfortable in his white cotton shirt, finally feeling a bit of relief from the heat. He reached out, carefully steadying her arm. 

“May I?” he asked.

She nodded her affirmation and he carefully peeled the fabric away from the wound. She turned her head, so he wouldn’t see her grimace. Alucard examined it closely. It wasn’t _terrible_ but it certainly looked painful, and despite her brave face, Alucard knew it was causing her at _least_ a good amount of discomfort. 

“I saw Trevor stumble,” she whispered as Alucard dabbed at it with a new wet rag. “I got distracted and thought he might need my help and the stupid thing got me. It almost got me right in the throat, but I moved just in time…”

Alucard focused on cleaning the wound, though he could feel her shoulder trembling. “You’re both alive. You did good.”

She let her head fall back against the wagon cover. “I knew he was sick. He’d been starting to show symptoms for a few days. I kept asking him about it, but he was just… being so stubborn. He kept saying he was fine. I just wanted to help… But I stopped asking. I let him walk around like that to teach him a lesson. I thought that he’d learn to take help from others for once.” She sighed heavily. “But I think he’d rather die than ask for help. And now he might.”

Alucard sat back on his heels, watching her face, surprisingly stoic, despite the visible tears in her eyes.

“You did what you could, Sypha,” he said, his voice low and soft. “It’s not your fault that he’s that way.”

“A big fucking idiot?” she said with a chuckle as the tears began streaming down her face.

“A big fucking idiot,” Alucard confirmed, a grin crossing his face.

He dug around in his bag, pulling out a smaller satchel with a few clean bandages and things.

“You came prepared,” Sypha observed.

“My mother was an apothecary, preparation has been ingrained in me since childhood,” he jested. “If you think I’ve left my home without an emergency kit a single day in my life, you’d be mistaken.”

“Lucky us to have you, then,” she said a bit sadly.

“Lucky indeed. Not so lucky to avoid stitches, I’m afraid,” he said, giving the skin around her wound an exploratory poke.

Sypha groaned. “Yes sir, doctor Alucard.”

She watched as he assembled his tools nearby, laying out a needle, bandages, thread, and a few other little things.

“Where does Trevor keep his alcohol?” he asked.

“You think he’s that big of an alcoholic?” she retorted with a smirk.

“Absolutely,” he said. “The only reason I found you two was by stopping in any bar I came across and asking around. One of the bartenders mentioned paying you two in bottles of grain alcohol for the creatures you killed. I know Trevor likes to drink, but I don’t think even he could’ve finished a bottle of that poison on his own in such a short amount of time.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “that’s about right. There’s one under that mat there,” she said, indicating a spot underneath the driver’s bench.

Alucard grabbed it and popped the top, the fragrant alcohol burning his eyes, making him recoil in disgust.

“I’m sorry about this, Sypha.”

“Just do it. I can take it.”

He huffed, pressing his mouth into a sympathetic line as he carefully poured the clear liquor over the wound, holding her arm down tightly to prevent her from pulling away, which she tried as soon as the liquid made contact with her injury.

“ _AH, FUCK_!” she exclaimed as quietly as she could. “Are you sure that’s necessary?”

“My mother taught me everything I know about medicine. Are you going to question my mother’s teaching, Sypha?”

She smiled. “I guess not.”

When he was satisfied, cleaned up a bit of the excess alcohol with the clean cloth. He finished up and picked up the small, hooked needle.

“Hate to ask again, but do you mind?”

Sypha’s fingers strained into a shaky sign, a flame igniting over her index finger. Alucard held the needle in the flame, careful to heat every part of it.

“Just be fast,” she said, resigning herself to the pain.

And he was. He worked as carefully and quickly as possible, weaving the needle and thread as dextrously as a professional. Sypha grimaced, but if she were being honest with herself, it was only a fraction of the pain of the alcohol. Before she knew it, Alucard had taped a clean cloth bandage right over it and gave her a reassuring pat on the arm.

“All done. Sorry, I don’t have any sweets for you,” he joked.

“That’s ok, I think I’ll get over it,” she said. “Thank you, Alucard.”

“Of course. That’s what friends are for,” he said, wincing as he carefully readjusted the legs of his pants, stretching out his free hand as a sudden flash of pain radiated through his palms. His fingers ached something fierce, every muscle and tendon in his hand exhausted from holding the reins for so long.

“Everything ok?” she asked.

“Yes, just chafed from the ride over. I’m fine. Just a bit uncomfortable,” he said, situating himself against the wall next to Sypha. “It’s a bit warm tonight, which isn’t helping. He massaged his palms aggressively, trying to rub out the soreness, though he tried to keep his hands at least somewhat out of Sypha’s view.

Naturally, though, that didn’t quite work. She sat up, quickly digging through a bag next to her, pulling out a small jar. She sat back in her place, offering it to Alucard.

“Put some of this where it hurts,” she said.

He hesitantly unscrewed the lid, cautiously dipping a finger in. When he retrieved it, a long, thick cord of goop trailed between his finger and the jar.

“Very… slimy,” he said with a grimace.

“It’s the best for your skin. It’s aloe gel with a few other special additions of my own,” she said deviously.

“I didn’t know you were a mediciner, Sypha.”

“I’m not, but to be honest, everyone should know how to make this stuff. I used to use it all the time for sunburns.”

“I trust you, I think,” he said, beginning to undo the top of his pants, not feeling particularly shy. He worked his pants and boots off, discarding them into what was becoming a pile of his clothes. He settled back down, pulling his braies up to the tops of his thighs, sucking in air when he saw how enflamed his inner thighs were, cringing as he pulled the last of the fabric over them, each brush of fabric like fire on his legs. An aggressive crimson rash extended from inside his knees as far up his leg as his underwear would expose and then some.

Sypha raised a shocked fist to her mouth, her eyebrows sympathetically knit together.

“Oh my god, Alucard.”

“Remind me to never ride a horse again,” he said, with a pained laugh. 

Sypha chuckled. “I’m proud of you for making it all the way here.”

He stuck his fingers into the jar, retrieving a healthy blob of the goop, dabbling it onto his thigh all over the red area, leaving a peaky and glistening sheen all down his inner leg, managing to get it all over his hands in the process.

“No offense, but you aren’t very good at this. Are you sure your mother taught you _everything_ you know?”

He smiled. “She taught me, but I guess I didn’t learn it all quite so well.”

Shakin her head, Sypha clicked her tongue. “Tsk, tsk, you should know better.”

“I can hardly feel my hands, give me some slack,” he laughed. “They never tell you how much holding those reins will absolutely murder your fingers.”

Sypha climbed in front of him, planting herself cross-legged between his legs. A shot of adrenaline shot through Alucard’s heart at the sight, his brain dragged momentarily back to that night. He quickly remembered himself and put those thoughts aside when Sypha held out her hands to him, shaking them demandingly.

“Give me your hand,” she demanded.

He hesitantly laid his hand atop hers, where she began to firmly massage his palm, working her fingers in the soft flesh at the base of his thumb and all across his smooth palm. Alucard grunted reflexively, his muscles aching under her fingers, though the pain felt like relief. 

“How is that?” she asked eagerly.

“Bloody great, actually,” he said with a sigh, relaxing his head against the wagon cover.

Though he wasn’t sure quite how he felt about her choice of seating location, he was pretty certain he’d never felt anything that incredible in his whole life. He hadn’t had much time to realize just how exhausted he was until now, and he didn’t have it in him to complain, especially considering their state, but he was honestly overwhelmed by his discomfort and it all seemed to hit him at once. He was so frequently tired and in pain recently; none of this was new to him, but after having reached his breaking point and travelling for days without rest, his emotions were on a hairpin trigger, and just the slight semblance of familiar comfort moistened his eyes with tears. 

He clenched his teeth as Sypha continued to work on his hand, sliding her thumbs between the tendons running up to his knuckles. He tried to compose himself, turning his head to the side to avoid her gaze, letting a few bits of hair fall strategically about his face to obscure it, but he just couldn’t hold back the tears, letting them spill as covertly as possible as he watched the tree branches shake gently outside the wagon, their black-branched silhouettes waving across the few stars that were visible.

It took her a few moments to notice, but Sypha immediately paused her massage when she saw the glint in his eyes which he was so obviously hiding. She could see his jaw quivering.

“Alucard..?” 

He rolled his head against the wagon cover to look at her with the saddest smile she’d ever seen, hoping to reassure her as the tears continued to streak down his face. He sniffled a little and cleared his throat.

“I’m just really tired,” he said, a waver audible in his voice.

Sypha pouted, her eyebrows knit together in concern. She gently set his hand atop his thigh and with her hands gently cupping his face, she wiped both his cheeks. He didn’t feel like he deserved this comfort, but he let her keep her hands there in a few moments of self-indulgence while she brushed her thumbs lovingly across his face.

He took one of her hands in both of his, burying his face in it as he let out a shuddering sigh.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, letting go of her hand. “You should go to sleep.”

“I can’t,” she said. “Not when you feel like this.” 

She held out her hands again. 

“Give me your other hand.”

He did and she proceeded to lavish his hand with the same loving fervor that she’d given his first. 

“Sypha, your shoulder,” he protested.

“It’s fine, don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt when I do this.”

“You really should get some sleep.”

“Eventually, but not yet. Anyway, if I sleep, the magic will wear off and the ice will melt, and I can’t let Trevor’s fever get any higher.”

“Oh… right…”

She released his hands, and he stretched them out, finally feeling refreshed from the tension he’d carried in them for days.

“How do they feel now?” she asked.

“Amazing. You’re a wizard, Sypha,” he said with relief.

“A magician, but close,” she corrected with a wink.

“And a little bit of an ass, but we won’t hold that against you either,” he joked.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “I missed your humor. We both did.” She paused a moment. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“I missed you two, too,” he said. “And I’m very glad to be back.”

He could feel the tears coming back again, and evidently, Sypha sensed it, too. She picked up the forgotten jar of salve and offered it up to him, sparing him another emotionally vulnerable moment. 

“Don’t forget this. Just rub it in until it’s basically dry. I promise you’ll feel better instantly,” she said. “I’m going to go wash up.”

She made her way out the back of the wagon and departed to the stream while Alucard made quick work of the salve. Sypha was right—it was a miracle. It cooled and soothed every inch of raw flesh, and before he knew it, he’d forgotten what it felt like to hurt. He carefully screwed the lid back on and returned it to the bag Sypha’d retrieved it from. 

When Sypha returned, she had a small cup full of water, climbing back into the wagon as carefully as possible. She set it down at Trevor’s side before kneeling beside him, softly sliding her hand under his neck, gently rousing him with her other hand, his chest still excessively warm and sheened with sweat beneath her palm. She took the icy rag from his forehead and set it aside while she continued to lightly jostle his chest.

“Trevor,” she whispered. “Trevor I need you to sit up.”

Trevor grumbled softly as he came around, hardly able to open his eyes, though when he did, they were glazed over and wandering. It became quickly obvious that he wasn’t going to be quite as responsive as she needed him to be. The thought made her nervous.

“Alucard, help me,” she said as she started to lift Trevor’s head.

Together, they got him into a sitting position, though he was hardly able to support himself in his state, barely even able to recoil from Alucard’s cool grip. Alucard scooted behind him, bracing against Trevor’s back. His head lolled forward, quietly groaning in pain.

“Sypha…?” he mumbled, searching the wagon, unable to get his bearings.

“You need to drink some water, Trevor,” she said, holding the cup up to his mouth. He instinctively pulled his head back, prompting Alucard to steady it from behind. He let his fingers lovingly scratch Trevor’s scalp just a little bit to help him relax. Sypha caressed his cheek, finally prompting him to open his mouth, just enough to be receptive to the cup.

“Good boy,” she said, a bit panderingly. “Just a little.”

He struggled to accept a few small gulps of water before sputtering, nearly choking on it, nearly knocking the cup away when he reflexively raised his arms. Alucard quickly blocked him from making contact with the cup, urging his hands back down. His scratching turned more to a soothing massage, allowing himself a bit of a tender connection as he kept Trevor from throwing his head back. That didn’t seem to be a problem as Trevor’s head quickly fell forward again.

Sypha set aside the cup and took Trevor’s face in her hands. He lazily attempted to pull away, but he didn’t have the strength in him. She brushed the hair off his forehead, feeling new beads of sweat forming where the rag had been, his skin barely any cooler than it was before they’d put the rag there.

She spoke seriously. “This isn’t good, Alucard.”

“We need to hurry and get to the castle. We’ll be able to diagnose and treat him there, but until then we just have to keep his temperature down and hope we make it that far.”

He could feel the heat radiating off of Trevor’s back, though he shivered quite horribly, the chills taking over his body. Alucard wrapped his arms around Trevor’s torso, making Trever shudder unconsciously. Before he knew what he was doing, he’d pulled Trevor in even closer to himself and leaned back, propping himself against the wall as Trevor laid against him. 

Sypha’s eyes widened with realization, a gasp of eureka. “You’re a genius Alucard!”

He scoffed. “I wouldn’t say that. It just makes the most amount of sense. This way, you can go to sleep and not have to worry. My cold, dead heart will keep him cool.”

He smiled, laughing at his joke as if it weren’t at least mostly true. But in spite of his dark humor, he wasn’t upset about the close comfort of Trevor’s form atop his chest. Loneliness had crushed him for so long that it was a relief to feel the weight of a friend instead. Maybe he was being selfish, but he didn’t really care at that point and it didn’t seem like Sypha had any particular gripes with it either as she stretched her arms out, seeming quite eager to hit the hay.

“That’s great, because I think I’ll die if I stay awake any longer,” she yawned. “I’ll wake up early and get the horses ready to go in the morning.”

“Alright,” Alucard said, satisfied. “Sounds like a deal.”

“Oh! Wait a second.”

He watched as she scurried around the wagon, assembling an armful of whatever soft things she could find—mostly spare blankets, a pillow, and extra wagon covering.

“Here, sit up.”

He obeyed and she began to stuff her collection behind his back, offering at least a bit of padding between him and the hard wooden wall.

“Much better!” she announced, quite pleased with herself.

“Thank you, Sypha,” Alucard said, situating himself back into the pile.

Her smile quickly turned into sheepish blushing as she looked around the wagon, avoiding eye contact with him as she pondered a thought that had popped into her mind. Alucard was quick to notice.

“What?” he asked, almost accusational in his tone.

“I’m… um… well, I was just thinking that… you know… uh…” For the life of her she couldn’t stop stuttering, not usually considering herself a shy person, but somehow unable to just spit it out. “Well usually, skin to skin contact is better for heat transfer… right? Or… vice versa in this case…”

Alucard found it a bit difficult to close his mouth, a single eyebrow raised in disbelief at her proposition.

“Do you… want me to take my shirt off!?” he asked a bit incredulously.

“NO!” she blurted. “That’s not… Not for me, no… I don’t _want_ you to, I just… Think maybe you should…”

Alucard couldn’t help but burst out into a full fit of laughter, unable to contain himself for the first time in what felt like forever. Sypha crossed her arms and pursed her lips as he cackled madly, throwing his head back in such genuine, hearty laughter that she wasn’t sure he’d ever stop. But he did, eventually, though not until an inappropriate amount of time had passed. He couldn’t be bothered to care. He would’ve laughed forever if he could’ve. It had only just occurred to him just how much he’d missed laughing, and god, he was so thrilled to be able to do it again.

“You should see yourself, Sypha, you look like a tomato.”

She smirked. “Well I’m glad you’re amused. Now do you want Trevor to die or what?”

As the last of the laughs left his system, he managed to sit up under Trevor’s weight and slip his shirt off, careful not to let Trevor fall forward or slide to the side. Finally, he leaned back again and resituated Trevor against him, his warm back pressing against Alucard’s cool chest. For someone who’d never cared much about temperature before, he had to admit that it felt nice to feel someone else’s. He shrugged a bit.

“There. Are you happy now?” he asked, his goofy, pointy smile unabating.

But Sypha didn’t seem to hear or enjoy the joke. She was already distracted by something. Her eyebrows were furrowed together and she swallowed hard, and when Alucard followed her eyeline to the enormous scars criss-crossing his body, he suddenly didn’t feel so jolly either.

She couldn’t stop herself from reaching out and tracing the long line crossing his chest to his shoulders. He instinctively shied away, averting his gaze, but there was nowhere to go. He had no other option but to sit there and let her feel what they’d done to him.

“Alucard…”

The way she said his name felt like a knife twisting right in his guts. He was silent for a few moments, his breath shuddering as he tried to contain the array of emotions flowing through his mind like a stream of poison that he wished would just kill him already. But no such luck would come to him.

Without a word, Sypha crawled over to him, throwing her arms around his neck, cradling his head, her fingers entwining in his hair. A few tears dripped down his pale cheeks, but they weren’t his for once. He reached up, wrapping his arm around her, gently at first, but soon his fingers dug into her back as he clung to her.

“We’re never going to be apart again. The three of us…” she whispered. “We’re going to stay together forever.”

“Yes…” he breathed, his grip on her tightening even further.

After what felt like an eternity, she sat back, placing a hand on both his and Trevor’s shoulders, looking them over with a soft smile, giving them both a light, loving squeeze.

“My boys…” she mused to herself.

She leaned forward, giving Trevor a long, loving kiss atop the head. To Alucard’s surprise, she turned to him and kissed his head as well. She let herself linger there for a moment longer and Alucard didn’t mind. He closed his eyes, leaning into it, feeling a fluttering in his chest as she sat back beside him again.

 _The three of us… together forever…_ he thought. _What a dream…_

He let himself get situated, propping up his knees around Trevor, wrapping his arms lightly around his feverish neck. Sypha scooted a bit closer and got comfortable beside him, nudging her good shoulder up into him so she could lay her head on his. He didn’t pull away, embracing her warmth beside him, allowing her to lay her hand on his arm as she cozied up to him, careful not to further irritate her bad shoulder.

“Are you comfortable?” she asked, nearly asleep already.

“Yes,” he lied.

“Goodnight, Alucard.”

_Yes it is…_

“Goodnight, Sypha.”

Truthfully, his back ached fiercely, and his ass was already on pins and needles. Though Sypha’s miracle cream was, indeed, miraculous, it didn’t hold up against the obnoxiously painful irritation that Trevor’s sleeping form caused on Alucard’s inner thighs. He wasn’t sure how either of them would be comfortable enough to sleep, but he quickly realized when Trevor nuzzled his head into the cool flesh of Alucard’s neck that it wasn’t about the space. It was the people that made it comfortable.

Sypha squirmed a bit beside him, giving his arm a little squeeze as she, too, nuzzled her head a bit deeper into him.

The air became still very soon, Trevor and Sypha’s heavy, sleep-filled breaths becoming the only sound Alucard could hear. They were the only ones he wanted to hear, now or ever. 

He could only feel bliss now. He finally felt at home. In this tiny, hot, and incredibly smelly wagon, he was there at last. Whatever came their way, they’d face it as a team. As a family. 

_My friends…_ he thought as he drifted off to sleep. _My forever..._


	2. Chapter 2

The morning came more quickly than Alucard would have liked. 

Despite the aches and pains that shot through his whole body as he roused himself awake, he had managed to sleep through the night, though he wasn’t sure he could consider the sleep he’d gotten “good.” Sypha had shifted in the night, now laying across the floor, but to Alucard’s surprise, Trevor had slept quite heavily. Even as Alucard began to stir, Trevor didn’t even come close to waking up, his chest still heaving with sleep. As soon as she heard his movement, Sypha rolled awake, rubbing her eyes as the morning sunlight gleaned in. With a big yawn she sat up, stretching mightily, seemingly each and every joint in her body cracking or creaking, careful not to overstretch her injured shoulder.

“Good morning,” Alucard whispered to her.

“G’ mornin’,” she yawned back.

_So she’s not a morning person,_ he noted to himself as he slipped from behind Trevor, carefully laying him down on the soft pile he’d called a bed for the night. He laid the back of his hand against Trevor’s forehead. It was still warm, but it hadn’t gotten any worse as far as he could tell, and that was all he’d really hoped for.

Desperate to stretch out his legs, he grabbed his shirt and hopped out the back, the warm morning glow feeling delightful on his bare shoulders as he rubbed his sore knees. Until this point, he wasn’t even sure he was capable of experiencing pins and needles, but his toes and ass were aflame with the static feeling, which he miserably tried to rub away to no avail.

Sypha let her legs swing out the back until she was sitting on the edge of the wagon watching Alucard work the night time stiffness out of his body. He spun around when he heard her stir, shyly doing his best to cover himself without making it too obvious. He quickly threw it over his head, stuffing his arms in as fast as he could, though he was fairly certain Sypha was too tired to notice.

“How is your shoulder feeling?” he asked, making his way toward her as he tucked his shirt into his pants.

“Not too bad. As long as I don’t move it around too much, it’s fine.”

He carefully peeled the bandage away, peeking underneath.

“It looks good. We should change the dressing before we head out and it should be fine.”

“I don’t think we have time. We should get back to the castle as quickly as possible,” Sypha said.

She made a move to stand up, but with a hand placed carefully on her good shoulder, Alucard gently urged her back down.

“You two are such boneheads,” he chuckled as he gathered his materials from his pouch, tossing aside her old dressing. “You won’t be satisfied until one of you dies for the other, will you?”

Sypha wrinkled her nose as he started dabbing at her shoulder with a clean cloth. “I don’t think it’s that extreme.”

“Right. Just as long as your shoulder gets infected and your arm falls off, that’ll be good, then, won’t it?”

She scoffed. “I think you’re exaggerating. I just want to make sure Trevor is ok.”

“And I want to make sure _you’re_ ok,” he said sternly, suddenly turning much more serious. “Trevor is asleep and his temperature hasn’t changed all night. He’s not in danger right now, but if you start skimping out on caring for yourself then you might be.”

Sypha thought to reply, but she bit her lip instead, unable to find anything to say.

Alucard spoke for her. “You think that if you suffer a bit then you’ll make up for letting Trevor get this sick, right? You think it’s your fault and that this is your punishment.”

She turned her head from him, her jaw clenched tightly. He dropped his cloth back onto his pouch, pulling some clean dressings from it, beginning to tightly wrap it over the wound.

“Suffering won’t ease your guilt.” He finished up, tearing off the rest of the dressing before stuffing the rest in his bag. “And you shouldn’t feel guilty anyway.”

A slurry, belabored moan came from the wagon. “ _Can you two stop... talking so fffucking loud..?_ ”

Alucard and Sypha bolted up, immediately turning.

“Trevor!?” they gasped simultaneously, crawling into the wagon.

Inside, Trevor’s chest heaved as he labored to breathe, covered in a sickly glistening layer of sweat. He tried to sit up, but couldn’t find the strength in his back, and could rely on no support from his arms, defeatedly letting himself fall back onto the pillow. The wagon top spun in front of him, and he couldn’t get his bearings, feeling incredibly dizzy, his stomach churning. He groaned, his eyes squeezing shut as he weakly raised his arm to let his fingers comb the damp hair from his forehead.

Sypha crowded up next to him, holding his hand as she hunkered over him while Alucard stayed back a bit.

“How do you feel Trevor?” Sypha asked eagerly.

“About as good as _he_ looks,” he said weakly, looking right at Alucard.

Instantly, Alucard’s heart swarmed with butterflies, the warm familiarity of Trevor’s insults bringing him a nearly overwhelming amount of joy. He smiled and was surprised to see a shaky smile spread across Trevor’s face as his eyes drifted closed again. 

Quickly, Sypha snatched up the cup and darted out the back of the wagon.

Alucard sat back, getting comfortable on his knees. He watched Trevor carefully, his body wracked with Tremors, eyes periodically squeezing shut a bit harder. Alucard felt terrible for him. 

“You’re an asshole, you know,” he said softly.

“Yes, well… fuck you…” His response was labored and it was apparent how little energy he had to speak with. But he said it with a smile nonetheless.

Sypha leapt back into the wagon, nearly spilling water all over all three of them. She knelt down next to him and gently lifted his head, nudging at his lips with the cup.

“Come on, open up,” she prodded. “You need to drink.”

Trevor used the little remainder of his strength to turn his head from her.

“ _Nnn_ … I’ll be sick…” he mumbled as she followed his mouth with the water.

“Don’t be an idiot, Trevor,” Alucard mused. “Drink it. You’re sweating like a pig and you need fluids in your body.”

“I’ll just throw it up,” Trevor groaned.

“Then you’ll throw it up. And then you’ll drink more,” Alucard said.

Trevor cracked open his eyes, just enough to peer at Alucard and Sypha’s faces, both of their expressions appearing quite serious.

“You guys are _pushy…_ ” he grumbled, leaning into the cup, allowing Sypha to tip it up a bit. 

He took miniscule sips, fighting to swallow, though he sputtered periodically. But Sypha was persistent, unrelenting until the cup was empty. It took much longer than it should have, but soon enough she was satisfied and gently laid his head back down. He struggled to catch his breath, and though he tried to keep them open, his eyes fluttered closed.

Sypha carefully wiped a bit of spilt water from Trevor’s chin, though he didn’t seem to notice. She picked up his wrist, feeling around with her first two fingers before finally finding the right spot. She sat quietly for a few moments feeling the frantic thrumming of his pulse, his skin still incredibly warm to the touch.

“His heart beat is fast,” she said to Alucard. “Very fast.”

“I suppose time really is of the essence, then,” he replied, lifting his shirt from the wagon floor and throwing it on. “We’ll be off. We can make it by nightfall if we hurry.”

He made his way quickly around to the front, hitching his horse to an extra lead attached to the harnesses. He fixed up the rig and tugged a few times, checking its security. When he was satisfied, he hopped into the driver’s bench, grabbing the reins and snapped them a few times. Frustrated, he snapped a few more times. Dragging their feet at first, they were slow to start, but quickly got the message after a few more aggressive flicks.

The whole wagon jolted as it moved, and Sypha nearly spilled water all over both Trevor and herself as she clumsily soaked the rag again, refreezing it as she’d done the night before. She laid it across Trevor’s head, watching him recoil under the cold, though he kept quiet. She could tell by how heavily he began to breathe that he was already asleep again, only moments later. For good measure, she grabbed another nearby rag and did the same, placing it on his chest. She could see goosebumps creep up across his skin, hoping that by doubling the cold, his temperature would decrease even faster. He shivered weakly, and no matter how much she wanted to throw a blanket over him, she restrained herself. There was no guarantee that at such a high temperature, he’d be able to simply sweat it out as she was often told to do. They couldn’t risk letting him get any hotter. 

For now, she figured it best to let him rest. She gave his glistening forehead a quick kiss and hopped in the front of the wagon beside Alucard, who was urging the horses on quicker. Sypha was surprised just how much speed they gained with the additional horse, her hopes rising for a short journey. 

“Do you think we’ll really make it by nightfall?” she asked.

Alucard didn’t hesitate. “We’ll be ok.”

She watched the horses, their shining coats glossy over their strong muscles, her mind wandering. She couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if they weren’t ok, but she let the thoughts roll away as the wheels of the wagon bounced over the hard trail beneath them. She was surprised to very suddenly feel a gentle hand plop atop her head. 

Alucard wasn’t looking at her; his eyes were fixed on the trail ahead, but as if he could sense her distress, he gave her a gentle little pat.

“Relax for a bit,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do for the moment, and if you keep worrying, you’re just going to make yourself sick.”

She let out a sigh and slid back in the seat as Alucard took the reins in both hands again. He could feel her scooting a bit closer to him, little by little, as if trying to evade notice. When she got close enough, she nonchalantly leaned her head against his shoulder. With no prompting, he moved his shoulder away and hooked his arm around her instead, letting her lean into his chest, her forehead resting against his jaw. His cool skin felt like sweet relief under what was quickly becoming a swelteringly hot sun. She let herself settle into him a little bit deeper, her eyes falling closed, and before she could recognize it, she let out a contented sigh.

“Comfortable?” he asked.

“Mmmm,” she replied, half asleep already. “Tired…”

“You should sleep,” he said, giving her shoulder a small squeeze, careful to keep his hand well away from her injury. “You could use it.”

“Mm mmm,” she mumbled, shaking her head a bit as she rubbed at her eyes. “...don’t want to.”

“Sypha…” 

She couldn’t help but become even more tempted by sleep, lulled there by his smooth, velvety voice.

“Mmm… No… Don’t wanna…” She trailed off, lulling a bit.

Alucard could feel her relax into him. He could tell she wasn’t quite asleep, but was damn near close. He let his thumb mindlessly rub up and down her shoulder, allowing himself to slide down in the bench a bit, propping his foot up on the front barriuer. He nestled his head into her hair just a bit, only enough to get comfortable. 

Sypha draped her arm over him, her fingers lazily toying at the hem of his shirt, resting atop his thigh. It was comforting, and Alucard was relieved to have her there. She wasn’t afraid to be near him, and more importantly, _he_ wasn’t afraid to have her near him. He felt safe here.

He almost lost himself to sleep when he heard Sypha mumble something under her breath, half heavy with sleep, half a deliberate whisper.

“What?”

But by the time he noticed that her hand had begun wandering upward against the scars along his stomach, his brain had already realized what she’d asked.

“What did this to you?”

He was endlessly thankful that she couldn’t see his face, because he was sure he grimaced deeply. 

“It’s nothing,” he said, his voice as steady as he could make it.

She knew that wasn’t true. He knew that she knew that it wasn’t true. Neither of them said anything for a while. He contented himself with the silence, listening to the rhythmic step of the horse’s hooves against the hard dirt, snapping the reins, urging them onward even faster. He didn’t need her to say anything, and quite uncharacteristically, she didn’t. She simply readjusted herself, letting herself wrap around him just a little bit tighter, hugging him a little bit closer as they flew down the road.

******

Sypha came to very quickly, utterly disoriented as she struggled to gain her bearings. It took her a moment to realize that Alucard had already leapt out of the driver’s seat, and when she pushed herself to sit up, she could hear a strained coughing through her daze. She turned when she felt the weight on the back of the wagon shift, finally spotting Alucard cradling Trevor’s face as he labored to cough, the sweaty sheen on his skin more pronounced than before. Sypha could hear Alucard whispering to him, but it wasn’t until she crawled dazedly into the back with them that she could hear the urgency in his voice.

“You need to breathe, Trevor.” He tried to remain calm, but with nothing at his disposal to help, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.

He didn’t know if Trevor couldn’t hear him or couldn’t listen to him, but he continued to sputter and hack, trying as hard as he could to turn his head away, though his efforts were mostly in vain as Alucard continued to steady his shivering body. Alucard could nearly feel a bead of sweat breaking on his own forehead as he watched poor Trevor’s eyebrows pulled together in discomfort, gasping for breath. 

_You need to focus. Losing yourself will help no one._

He inhaled deeply, letting out a more calm and controlled breath, coming back to himself. He centered himself and took a moment to think, assessing the situation to the best of his ability. 

He was struck suddenly with a realization that both mitigated his fears and exponentially increased his urgency.

“I need ice, Sypha. Lots of it.” His voice was cool and calm. Sypha was surprised as Alucard scooped Trevor up as he groaned, weakly clutching his torso. “I need you to fill up the cup there with small pieces.”

“Where are you taking him?”

“He’s going to be sick,” Alucard said, stepping off the back of the wagon, cradling Trevor carefully. “And I’m not cleaning that mess off the floor.”

True to Alucard’s prediction, as soon as he laid Trevor down on the ground, with a sudden rise in energy, Trevor rolled himself nearly onto his stomach, propping himself up flimsily and retched into the grass. Alucard knelt down and quickly took hold of Trevor’s shoulder, doing his best to support him as he began to vomit. Careful to stay out of his trajectory, Alucard delicately held back the wayward pieces of hair that seemed insistent on falling into Trevor’s face.

He looked so weak, and Alucard could feel Trevor’s arm shaking as he barely managed to hold himself up, blades of grass tickling his lips and nose as he wavered, gasping for air between heaves. Alucard gently ran his palm up and down along Trevor’s back, feeling goosebumps prickled up along his skin, though he was incredibly hot to the touch. A knot formed in Alucard’s stomach. He hated to see Trevor this way, as brash and obnoxious as he could be ordinarily. He wished there was anything he could do to ease his pain, but he was powerless to do anything besides sit and watch, and that absolutely gutted him.

As Sypha watched the two of them, she realized that it was much later than she’d thought. She could see the sun already beginning to settle below the treeline, the last light fading from the sky. It was becoming cool again, which was a good sign, and Sypha hoped that that may bode well for Trevor’s worsening condition. Finally, it was time for the world to stop working against them.

As Trevor panted in the grass, finally seeming finished, Alucard gently reached under his shoulder to lift him, only to have Trevor weakly grasp his arm in a feeble attempt to push him away. Hesitantly, Alucard let go.

“ _Don’t you… fucking pick me up again…_ ” Trevor whispered. 

He managed to roll himself onto his stomach, pulling his knees underneath him as he forced himself up into a near crouch before wobbling severely. Alucard was hesitant to let him continue, but at this point, he assumed that being active if even for a moment could wake him up just a bit more. Apparently, though, he’d overestimated Trevor, who he managed to catch as he collapsed.

“Are you done, you idiot?” Alucard jabbed benignly.

He expected a comeback, or even a scoff, but when he heard Trevor’s shuddering, resigned sigh as he made no effort to pick himself up again, he instantly regretted his words. He felt Trevor’s hand reach up and grip his arm, grasping at his shirt with a quivering fist. Alucard sat frozen, eyes wide, his mouth agape, unsure of what to do as he watched Trevor lie still in his arms. There was no fight left in him, and it broke Alucard’s heart. He was silent for a moment, letting his hand rest gently on Trevor’s back, his thumb rubbing comforting little circles between his shoulder blades. He half expected Trevor to stiffen up and try to move away. Hell, he would have felt better if he had, but that wouldn’t be the case. Trevor lay still, his hand still weakly clasping Alucard’s sleeve.

“I’m sorry…” Alucard whispered.

“Just take me back. Please…” Trevor mumbled, his voice languid with defeat. 

There was no point in arguing. Alucard wasn’t sure if Trevor had passed out again or if he was still awake, but he was absolutely silent as Alucard scooped him up in his arms again. The silence felt heavy on Alucard’s shoulders, and though he had no trouble carrying Trevor, he could feel his own arms trembling now. The only thing that snapped him out of it was Sypha’s sharp, alerted cry.

“Alucard!” 

He could see her eyes wide, her finger outstretched to indicate the tree line ahead of him. He turned quickly, a pair of glowing crimson eyes emerging from the deep shadows of the forest. Alucard was unsure how he hadn’t heard the noise before, but it was now more than apparent—a low, rumbling growl, punctuated by sharp, beastly exhales. The dull gnashing of teeth made the hair on the back of Alucard’s neck stand on end as he hurried back to the wagon. 

Sypha did her best to help him settle Trevor back into his spot, though she couldn’t help but look over her shoulder, watching the shadows along the roadside shift, more and more glowing eyes threatening them as they materialized from the trees. The deep thundering roars of the rapidly congregating creatures grew louder in every direction—a cacophony that reverberated disaster through the secluded area.

“We’re surrounded,” Alucard said gravely. He was afraid that his tone betrayed him as he did his best not to sound entirely forlorn. 

There were quite a number more of the creatures appearing with each passing moment—more even than the previous night. And what’s more, the sun had barely disappeared behind the trees, and though it was mostly dark, the glow of twilight still hung low in the sky. It was as if they couldn’t wait any longer, though Alucard was unsure if they’d simply chosen a bad spot to stop or if it was something more sinister and unavoidable. Perhaps, he contemplated, they had been followed. Regardless, they needed to move, and quickly. The chances of making an escape were slim, though. He could see the horses chomping at the bit, already fighting to bolt in different directions. He knew they wouldn’t be able to work together, and he and Sypha needed to focus on rehydrating Trevor, which would be damn near impossible at the speed they’d need to escape the night creatures anyway. 

Alucard had to decide quickly, but he was sure there was only one real option.

“I need you to stay in the wagon with him,” he directed Sypha, pulling his sheathed sword from his small pile of discarded belongings on the wagon floor, securing it around his waist. “Keep yourselves safe and get him to eat that ice.”

“What are you doing?” 

“There’s no way the horses will get us out of here. They’re already spooked. I have to dispose of these things first.”

“Alucard, you can’t get rid of all of them on your own… Let me help you.”

Alucard had already climbed out of the wagon, whipping his arm through the air to guide his sword as it flew unaided from from its sheath, its blade pointed and thirsting for night creature blood.

“Protect yourselves. I needed to stretch out my legs a bit anyway,” he said, his fangs exposed by an overly cocky and entirely perjured grin.

Sypha seemed hesitant to believe him, but time was short and she didn’t see fit to question his confidence at the moment. Alucard considered himself lucky as she immediately turned back to tend to Trevor, giving him privacy to allow his hand to tremble as he marched forward, approaching the ravenous creatures, their eyes fixated on him and the wagon. He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, calmly as he could.

_You bastards better thank me for this later._

He almost made himself chuckle at the thought, easing maybe an iota of tension that gripped his whole body, though it certainly didn’t do much. His long night of poor sleep and the exhaustion and physical pain of days on end of travel were finally catching up to him when it mattered the most, and while he knew he could stand and fight, he was less sure about winning. He could feel his thighs burning with chafe and his hips stiff from the saddle, wincing with every step, though he endeavored to ignore it. He had other things to focus on at the moment, and he knew that honing his attention was what would keep him alive. For now.

He counted six directly in front of him, however he could hear the breathing and rustling of others to either side, and even more, he could only assume, behind him. His sword angled itself toward a creature in front of him, ugly with horns and more protruding fangs than Alucard cared to count. He could see it salivating, no doubt at the thought of his death. There was an instant where he hesitated, wondering if he was making a mistake—if there wasn’t still time to get those stupid horses into gear. He only let the thought linger for a second before he gripped his sword’s hilt as it hovered in mid-air front of him and dashed forward, almost imperceptibly, bringing it down directly on top of the creature’s head before it could react. 

There was a palpable change in the air, and it was in that fraction of an instant that all hell broke loose. 

Creatures from every angle sprung forward, some that Alucard hadn’t even seen nor accounted for yet, as he wrenched his sword from the split head of the night creature, its dense skull clinging to the blade. With one solid kick to the chest, Alucard managed to free the weapon, darting to the side just quickly enough to avoid a lunge from a creature to his left, who tumbled into the dead night creature as it fell. With one broad stroke of his sword, he managed to slash deeply across the tumbling beast’s back, cutting through bone and broad muscles beneath its hideous fur, though he didn’t have an opportunity to secure a killing blow as he was batted aside by a sweeping claw, especially large even for a night creature. The wind was knocked out of him completely for a moment, and as he fought to regain his bearings, he was bombarded with a heavy weight atop his chest, feeling four searing, sharp pains in his side at the base of it. 

He looked up to see the creature with the large claws, all his weight pressing into Alucard’s chest with his massive claws digging into his skin. As the creature reared up to finish him off, Alucard quickly searched for his sword. He couldn’t see it, and fearing that he didn’t have enough time to find it, he focused on defense instead, hiding his face behind his arms. He was stronger than most, sure, but he anticipated a great deal of pain, his heart racing. 

He was surprised when the creature didn’t strike. He looked up to see a shard of ice peeking out of the creature’s chest, its gurgling death cry roaring from its throat as it collapsed, thankfully careening to the left, narrowly avoiding crushing Alucard completely. He rolled over, quickly locating his sword and springing to his feet as he snatched it up only a few feet away. He turned quickly to see Sypha conjure up a few more knife-like ice shards, floating defensively in front of the wagon opening, occasionally flying forward to strike a creature that came too close. She had that smirk as she locked eyes with Alucard— that cocky, adventurous smirk he’d only seen in a few moments of overconfidence, though this time, he was fairly sure she deserved it as she downed a few more creatures. For just a moment, he saw the old spark of life in her, one that he’d hoped desperately to see with no luck since they’d reunited. 

Alucard couldn’t watch for long, as another barrage of beasts descended upon him. He danced around them, hacking and slashing away, but he could feel himself growing more and more exhausted. His steps were faltering and he was occasionally grazed with a tooth or claw, though no creatures seemed to be able to seriously wound him. When he had finally made his way through that group, felling the last one with his sword, he stumbled, letting himself remain on his hands and knees for a few moments as he tried to regain his breath, though he didn’t get much time before another wave threw themselves at him. Claws were falling left and right, all targeted directly at Alucard’s head, leaving him no choice but to keep up, tucking and rolling and countering each one to the best of his ability. It seemed as though there was no end in sight, no matter how many beasts he skewered or sliced or cleaved. 

Every time he anticipated taking a large hit, though, there was an ice shard conveniently ready to stop whatever beast was prepared to finish him off. He wasn’t quite sure how Sypha was balancing both fighting off the beasts that shook the carriage mercilessly and keeping Alucard from dying, but he was praying she’d keep it up. Alucard could hear Trevor beginning to groan from the wagon again, and all he could do was hope that that didn’t draw in any more night creatures to the carriage than there already were. Just as Alucard turned to look, he spotted two creatures going after the poor, skittish horses who were doing their best to rock free from their harnesses. Just in time, Alucard sent his sword flying through the air, skewering the creatures’ heads together like a kebab, dropping them dead at the horses’ feet, though that didn’t appear to make the horses feel any safer than before. 

Before he knew what was happening, he was on the ground, his head throbbing, staring at a small puddle of his own blood. He raised his head, wiping a considerable trickle of blood from his nose and mouth, his neck stiff and aching, to see the beast that had struck him in the back of the head hard enough to knock his sense from him for a moment. Its four glowing eyes seemed to blaze in the night, although Alucard couldn’t be sure if the aura around them was due entirely to its own supernatural power or rather, at least in part, to his head injury. He managed to roll onto his back, but found that he could do little more than stare at the night creature as it salivated over him, its head cocked with malicious, tormenting excitement.

He was completely winded, and his adrenaline store was running low. He was seeing double and there was almost no reserve energy for him to call on. When he looked to his side, he could see Sypha just on the other end of the wagon in a standoff with a creature of her own. Though his vision was starting to go, he still writhed on the ground, using the last bit of his strength to search around him for his sword. He spotted it lying just under the horse next to him, just out of his reach. He stretched for all he could, but as the creature lurched toward him, he found that he couldn’t muster the strength to reach any further. He couldn’t even get up the strength to hide his face from the inevitable blow, resolving to simply close his eyes as the beast raised its claws to him.

“ _Hey LOOK, you ugly shit!”_

The sound of glass shattering and the great roar of the beast pierced the air in a simultaneous, cacophonous eruption.

Alucard opened his eyes at the noise, seeing the creature that was once looming over him now with its head thrown back, gripping its skull as it cried out. Alucard could see shards of glass and a familiar lid lying in ruin on the ground— the remnants of Sypha’s magical salve. Alucard’s eyes quickly darted to the rear of the wagon to see Trevor’s wavering form clinging to the side of the wagon, his eyes locked onto the creature as it turned to face its assailant.

“You know, the tastier meal is over here,” he said, with as cool a smirk as he could muster. “More muscle.”

Angered now, the beast flashed its teeth to Trevor, splaying its claws wide in a boastful act of aggression before it pounced.

Though he’d been ready to give up, Alucard’s instincts overrode his body’s signaling lack of energy. He lurched for his sword, taking the opportunity Trevor gave him, and with the last of his will, plunged the sword into the creature’s back.

Alucard watched it fall, but before it even hit the ground, everything went from swirling around him to complete darkness.

*****

Alucard couldn’t remember the last time his face had ached so much, but as he slowly came around, all he could think of was how impossibly painful it was to scrunch his nose. Bit by bit, the world came back to him, the wagon shaking rhythmically and his ears ringing as a dull, throbbing pain ravaged his head.

Haltingly, he propped himself up on his elbow, opening his eyes. He froze with a hiss, clutching his side, his hand coming away bloody. He looked around, taking in his surroundings one piece at a time as the memories slowly started resurface and things started to make more sense. The carriage was moving quickly—he could see that now, trees whipping past the sky as they flew down the road, finally understanding the shaking of the wagon. Trevor lay next to him, completely unconscious, his breaths still shallow and labored with fever. A fresh-looking frozen cloth lay across his chest, with another across his forehead. Alucard’s sense of urgency kicked in and he rolled to his knees, wincing at the sharp pain in his head as he moved, then wincing again at the pain in his face from wincing. He looked ahead, spotting Sypha’s small orange head in the front seat.

He hesitated, knowing that if he just laid back down he could get just a little more sleep that he desperately needed. He quickly decided against it, knowing that Sypha probably needed him now more than ever. As gingerly as he could, he urged his stiff body off the floor and crawled over the bench back, sliding in next to Sypha.

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

“Dare I ask what happened?” Alucard mused, half rhetorically.

“Well, you kicked some ass and then I kicked some ass and then, very surprisingly, Trevor kicked a little bit of ass,” she said with a pleasant little shrug.

“So… he’s feeling better, then?” 

“Just the opposite. It turns out that when you’re deathly ill, the only thing that can make you even more deathly ill is getting up to fight monsters.” Her tone was so sarcastically sing-songy, confusingly contrary to the words she was saying. “He’s the worst he’s been yet.”

Alucard slumped a bit in the seat, feeling foolish for having gotten his hopes up.

“Great. How far are we?”

“Not far at all. The castle is just beyond the edge of this forest. I saw it over the treetops before the road turned into the woods. It was…” She thought for a moment, imagining the sharp, jutting spires and peaks of the looming, black castle. “Still scary.”

“The old man sure knew about the effects of architecture, that’s for sure,” Alucard mused, poking cautiously at his eyebrow, above which there was a small, irritated cut, feeling quite similar to the one he felt on the bridge of his nose. He pulled out his shirt from his stomach, examining the four tears along his side, the white fabric stained quite heavily with blood. He lifted the fabric out of curiosity, studying the gnarly gashes along his obliques. They weren’t terribly deep, but they gave him a considerable amount of pain.

Sypha noticed his prodding at his wounds. 

“Sorry, we had to make a quick exit, so I didn’t have time to clean you up,” she said.

“It’s alright, it isn’t so bad,” he said, although that wasn’t quite true. Though his head still radiated pain primarily from his forehead, the intensity had begun to go down, leaving only a lingering sting on his nose and over his eyebrow. His side burned with much more heat and gave him much trouble than anything else, flaring up with every deep breath. His whole body was stiff and sore, and with every bump of the wagon, he felt a surge of pain jolt through him, each one exacerbated by the speed they traveled at. 

“Let me drive the rest of the way,” Alucard said, holding out his hand. “You should take a break.”

“It’s my turn now, you drove through the whole day.”

“I want to,” he pleaded, his tone short and tired. He clutched weakly at his side. “It will distract me a bit.”

Without a word, she handed over the reigns. 

The lantern hanging from the front rhythmically clanked hard against the wood support, casting flickering shadows over the uneven ground in front of them. It was obvious to Alucard that it was well into the night by now and the trees blocked any light that the moon may have offered, blanketing the road in thick black darkness, save for whatever sporadic luminance the lantern provided. He was a bit surprised that the horses were surging blindly ahead so quickly, but by the way Sypha had been aggressively flicking the reigns before, it seemed to him that they didn’t have much of a choice.

It wasn’t far now. Alucard could feel it. The trees grew more and more familiar and more noticeable landmarks began cropping up around them. He could practically sense the castle, despite the dark. As they grew closer to what appeared to be the edge of the treeline, Alucard could make out the twinkling lights of a few bright stars as the overhead foliage began to become more and more sparse. The ground began to light up around them as the moonlight poured down, finally illuminating the way. Alucard watched the branches overhead become fewer and more far between until they broke the treeline, and with hesitant relief, he spied the looming black facade of the castle, its ornate decorations barely visible in the dark. He studied it for only a moment before turning to Sypha to gauge her reaction, surprised instead to see her wide-eyed and staring straight ahead. He didn’t need to follow her gaze—he was immediately struck by remembrance.

“Please, Sypha,” he begged, quickly reaching over to pull her into him. She let him, and he brought her head into his chest, covering her eyes as he hugged her tightly. “Don’t look at them.”

She was silent as they drew closer. It turned Alucard’s stomach to see them now, and it sickened him even more to imagine what Sypha must think. He thanked God that Trevor wasn’t awake to see them. He averted his eyes, stopping the carriage at the front steps, unable to keep a sufficient distance from either one of them. He knew that time was of the essence, but he couldn’t move. He watched Sypha’s little orange head, his hand still firmly over her eyes, unsure if he’d be able to remove it. He was paralyzed. 

“Who are they?” she asked softly.

“They’re…” The words caught in his throat, choking him. “I… would rather not talk about it.”

The seconds of Sypha’s silence felt like ages, and he was sure that she could hear his heart beating wildly in his chest, but he couldn’t let go of her, no matter how he tried.

“Are they human?” There was apprehension in her voice.

He hesitated. “Yes,” he said, keeping his tone as even as possible.

Sypha kept silent for a moment.

“Did they hurt you?” she finally asked.

Alucard swallowed hard, his breath shaky.

“Yes.”

Another few ages seemed to pass as he awaited her reply.

“Ok,” she said. 

Ok.

“Is it?” Alucard asked, unconvinced.

Sypha extracted herself from him, turning sideways on the bench to face him. He caught her eyes flickering down to his chest, where there was no doubt that his scar was exposed above the hem of his disheveled white top. He fought his initial instinct to cover it up, but he let it remain visible instead, a testament to his pain.

“I know who you are,” Sypha said. “I know that there is nothing in you that would do that needlessly. You’re not…”

“Like my father?” he finished for her, his voice low and sad.

“You’re not a monster,” she corrected. “Although if we let Trevor die in the back while we sort through our feelings, we might both be.”

The corner of Alucard’s mouth turned reluctantly up into a smile as he climbed down from the bench.

“Yes ma’am,” he said, a bit sarcastic, though unwilling to completely part with his melancholy. It did feel nice, though—having Sypha’s reassurance. It was foreign to him, but comfortable. He very much hoped the feeling wouldn’t ever go away.

Sypha followed him to the rear of the wagon, watching him climb in and kneel beside Trevor. 

Trevor was quiet, small drops of water falling down his sides from the melting frozen rag atop his chest. Alucard removed it as well as the damp rag from his forehead, his hair dewy beneath it. He mindlessly stroked Trevor’s hair as he studied his face. He didn’t stir, though Alucard could’ve sworn that for a moment, his tightly knit brows relaxed and eased the lines in his forehead.

Alucard let his hand wander down to gently caress his thumb over Trevor’s temple. His face was still flushed, his cheeks red and hot to the touch. The time since his fever had progressed to this point was concerning, and Alucard knew that they were at the critical point in all of this—Trevor needed to get better quick or there wasn’t going to be any getting better at all.

As he’d done before, Alucard scooped Trevor up into his arms with ease, stepping carefully out of the wagon and heading toward the front steps of the castle. He carefully averted his eyes to the ground, keeping his gaze as far as possible from his unfortunate friends posted beside the steps. 

Sypha didn’t follow suit after gathering her things and tossing them into Alucard’s bag, slinging it over her shoulder. She couldn’t help it. A deep, menacing shudder ran down her spine at the gore. She couldn’t look away from the frankly draconian horrors planted firmly on either side of the door. She knew it wasn’t in him. She told herself that over and over again, but as she studied pikes erupting from esophagi, their bodies coated in a thick, dark crust of blood, she couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit of doubt. But she thought of the scars enwrapping Alucard’s body. _Surely,_ she thought, _they must have done that._ _But why?_

She shook off the line of questioning and finally pulled her eyes from them as she and Alucard approached the door, still sitting heavily ajar, seeming as though Alucard had left in too much a hurry to close it. She watched him as he stepped inside, his eyelids hanging low, his lips pursed tightly together. She could see the flex of his tightly clenching jaw as they stroke through the twists and turns of the castle.

“Are you feeling alright, Alucard?” she finally asked.

“I’m fine,” he lied. “Just a bit sore. Bit of a headache.”

“You hit your head pretty hard, didn’t you? I saw that creature… how it hit you into the ground…”

“I’m more resilient than a normal person.”

“And that blow was enough to knock even you out,” she said, rather bluntly. “That’s now I know how hard it was.”

He seemed to visibly wince at the memory. “Don’t worry about me, Sypha. I’ll be fine.”

They walked on in silence until finally turning into a large, warmly lit room lined with various bookshelves, cupboards, cabinets, tables, and really any odd or end that one would find atop or inside them all in a lab. Sypha paused, turning all the way around as she took it in. It was elegant and sophisticated, the likes of which she’d never seen before, though she expected no less from the wife of Dracula.

“This… is _amazing,”_ she marvelled aloud.

“Everything my mother could ever want or need, my father gave her,” Alucard said, gently laying Trevor down atop one of the large, ornate sofas that sat against the back wall. “Turns out she didn’t ever want much besides this.”

She watched as Alucard began to scour shelves before quickly pulling a book with a well-worn spine, its edges clearly frayed. He glided over to a table as he thumbed through the first few pages. He set the book down and rested his elbows on the table as he scoured the table of contents, drawing his finger along the listings on the page. 

Sypha watched as he flipped through the pages, though her attention was consistently drawn back to the room, the brightly decorated room standing apart to her from the rest of the castle. It’s bright, golden trims and ornamentations were so much more majestic than anything she’d seen in there. Naturally, the castle was full of wonder, but it was all shrouded in doom and darkness while this room was full of light and life. An interesting and perfect representation of the dichotomy between the doctor and the vampire, she noted. 

By the time she had turned back to Alucard, he was rummaging through various drawers, pulling an assortment of dried herbs and colorful flasks of liquid, none of which Sypha recognized.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” she inquired.

“Not particularly,” he said without looking away from his materials he was spreading across the table. “It’s fairly straightforward and doesn’t require much work. I should just be a few minutes. I suppose I was wrong about being able to diagnose him, but I think I know what will work. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

“Alright,” she said, feeling a bit dejected, wandering back to Trevor’s side, where she knelt.

She took his warm, clammy hand in hers, ignoring the sticky sheen. It didn’t bother her. There wasn’t much that did, although seeing Trevor like this was certainly on the list of things that did, right alongside having to sit idly by while Alucard worked and she could do nothing. She watched Trevor’s chest fluttering with shallow, hurried breaths. She could only hope that Alucard’s remedy could work magic.

“Sypha.”

“Hmm?” She turned to see Alucard tossing her a rag and bottle that he’d pulled from a drawer, both of which she caught.

“It’s a dry soap. Just put some on the rag and rub it in. Maybe… Well, hopefully he’ll be a bit more comfortable if he’s clean.”

They both returned to their respective work. Sypha uncorked the bottle and was immediately struck by a pleasantly sweet, floral smell. She was suddenly a little glad that he was unconscious, knowing that he would have complained if he could smell it. 

She made quick work of it, cleaning him as gently and thoroughly as she could, carefully lifting his arms and head to rub the soap over his armpits and hairline. By the time she was done, he looked (and smelled) so much better. She could hardly believe that such a thing existed, though if anyone could have made it, of course it was Alucard’s apparently genius mother.

True to his word, it took Alucard only a few minutes to combine the ingredients and get the result he needed. He approached the couch with a small glass containing a liquid so wretched and green and pungent that Sypha had to slide back a few feet in order to take another breath.

“Horrid, isn’t it?” he asked, a bemused smile on his face.

Alucard replaced Sypha next to Trevor, gently caressing his shoulder, jostling him just a little.

“Trevor,” he whispered softly. “ _Trevor.”_

When Trevor didn’t wake up, Sypha had an idea, whispering it devilishly into Alucard’s ear with her lips turned up into a smirk. Alucard scoffed when he hear, returning her evil grin as he held the concoction up to Trevor’s nose. 

The two waited in silent anticipation until Trevor nearly leapt up in a surprising display of primal adrenaline, coughing and retching as he regained himself a bit. He slowly opened his eyes to look around, confusedly taking in his surroundings. He let his head drop back to the couch, staring at the gilded trim near the ceiling, confused out of his mind.

“Where... are we?” he asked weakly.

“We’re in the castle,” Alucard said, his voice gentle and level. 

“ _Fffuck…_ ” Trevor slurred lazily. “I’ve died and gone to hell.”

“Hilarious, Belmont.” Alucard raised the glass to Trevor’s lips. “You need to drink this.”

Trevor turned his head away, raising his hand to cover his nose and mouth.

“You want me to die _that_ badly?” he mumbled.

“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have brought you here and offered it to you. As surprising as it is, even to myself, I actually…” His voice became softer. “I actually want you to live.”

Trevor watched his face; seeing Alucard’s eyebrows knit together ever so slightly with worry felt so strange to him. He was having trouble processing many thoughts, but the only one that he could think of was—

“Are you worried about me?” he said a bit smugly, though much more sincerely than he’d expected.

“If I say yes will you drink this?”

Trevor sighed. “Only if you say it.”

“I’m… I was worried about you.” He was telling the truth more than Trever could ever know.

Trevor grabbed the glass as forcefully and as bitterly as he could muster, and with the strongest grimace on his face, he swallowed the foul, chunky contents of the glass in one go. Alucard took the glass as soon as he was done. Trevor took a few heaving breaths as he tried his best to control his breathing.

“Please don’t throw up. We don’t want to make you drink it again,” Sypha said.

“I’m fine, _hurgh,”_ he choked out, stifling a retch. He exhaled hard. “Not feeling… _phew…_ so hot…” His speech was beginning to become lazy and slurry.

Sypha looked to Alucard.

“One or two of the ingredients are sedatives. So that’s probably that.”

“Oh, goodie…” Trevor mumbled sarcastically, closing his eyes.

Sypha raised an eyebrow.

“The body heals better when it’s asleep, and he’ll be sleeping for a while.”

“Mmm. You’re right.” She seemed distracted. Alucard could see the dark circles under her eyes.

Alucard slid his arms around Trevor, who only murmured in protest as Alucard picked him up from the couch. Before he even knew it, Trevor was asleep again, no doubt thanks to the heavy sedative effects of his concoction. 

Sypha followed behind as Alucard carried Trevor deeper into the heart of the castle, making their way through labyrinthine halls. Sypha tried her best to create a mental map of the place as they went, but she quickly realized why it had been designed this way, constantly finding she’d lost track of their location. 

Finally and miraculously, they turned off into a relatively large room, appearing even larger owing in part to the sparse furniture about the room. There wasn’t much to claim the space, though thankfully for them, the bed against the furthest wall was rather large. 

Sypha scurried around the bed, hurriedly tugging down the overly neat sheets, throwing decorative pillows to the floor until only the necessary one remained. Alucard knelt along the edge of the bed, careful to support Trevor’s head as he lay his ailing body down in the middle. He was surprised by how heavily unconscious Trevor was, half having expected him to move around or roll over or _anything_ really. He almost found himself worried that the concoction would be _too_ strong. He had no choice but to brush his fear aside, though by the look on Sypha’s face, he could tell she was harboring similar fears. He tried not to take it personally, chalking it up instead to the frazzled, overtired paranoia of a novice adventurer.

“Why don’t we find you a bed, Sypha?” he asked, standing with a wince as a fresh pain radiated in his side. “I just need to retrieve some ice for him, so there isn’t anything for you to do right now. And you should sleep properly for a while.”

His discomfort hardly went without notice. “I don’t need a bed at the moment, but surely this place has a wine cellar?” A smile crept up on her face, laden with mischief.

“Honestly, you sound like him,” Alucard mused.

Sypha dug around in the wreckage of pillows littering the floor at her feet, tearing a pillow from its case before finding another and doing the same, discarding both pillows as she laid the cases out on the bed. With one flick of her fingers, ice crystals manifested in piles of small, clattering pieces in the center of each. She quickly wrapped them up and placed the makeshift ice packs first on Trevor’s chest, then on his forehead with surprisingly little reaction from Trevor.

“If I was like him,” she retorted, “I’d have just left him to go drink downstairs from the beginning. Now let’s go,” she said, throwing Alucard’s bag over his shoulder and taking his hand as she led him out of the room as if she had any idea where she was going.

He quickly took the lead, though he didn’t pull his hand from Sypha’s and she, to his surprise, didn’t pull her hand from his. He found himself unconsciously squeezing her hand a bit harder than he’d intended, so much so that she gently touched his forearm with her free hand, whispering his name as a gentle reminder to ease up.

“Sorry,” he said, loosening his grip. “I’m stronger than I think sometimes.”

To his surprise, she made no attempt to extricate her hand and they walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence. 

The wine cellar was cold and musty, and though most of the bottles had long since been smashed or emptied, leaving ceiling high racks mostly free of anything but dust. The remnants were still strewn about the floor, though a few bottles still sat on the racks, untouched and waiting for Sypha’s eyes to find them and light up.

Sure enough, a bottle caught her attention and, as carefully as she could across broken glass, she practically leapt for it, studying the bottle, pretending to examine it as though she knew even the first thing about wine. Alucard watched her, knowing it was all a facade.

“Well?” he asked. “What’s the verdict?”

“I’ve decided that it’s perfect,” she said.

“Mmm? On what grounds?” He crossed his arms sceptically. 

“On the grounds that I said so.” She stepped over the field of glass to rejoin him, already scoping out the rest of the room. “Were all these racks ever full?”

“Always were,” Alucard said, studying them.

He could remember the days he’d begged his mother and father to let him have even just a sip when he was far too young to even be interested in such things, always sure that it would be the most luscious and exquisite thing to be tasted, sure that his parents were hogging it for themselves because of this. He fondly remembered the day his mother had gone away on her own to pick up materials, leaving his father unsupervised long enough to give in to Alucard’s childish demands, assuming that if he could finally know the taste, he’d never ask again. He was absolutely correct, and to this day, though Alucard liked it now, he could still remember how hard his face scrunched up as he recoiled from the flavor, thrusting the glass back into his father’s hands as he laughed heartily at him.

He felt a certain melancholy creep up on him as his eyes were drawn to the crystalline carnage, longing for those old, more simple days. Though there was no use dwelling on it, it sat in the back of his mind, taking up more space than he’d like.

Sypha could see it. As she struggled to open the bottle with the tools she found laying around, she became distracted by his wandering gaze, as though she could feel the nostalgia radiating off of him. She tapped his arm with the neck of the bottle, hoping to snap him out of it.

He took it from her, eyeing the damage she’d already done to the cork.

“There’s a proper corkscrew in the kitchen. Let’s go get it before you break the last usable bottle in this place.”

They made their way up more stairs, their journey to the kitchen very short compared to the trek that led them to the wine cellar, much to Sypha’s relief. Sypha sat at the surprisingly quaint table as Alucard fished in a drawer for his corkscrew. Sypha looked around, again absorbing the room, surprised at how much it stood out from the rest of the house. It was quite homey, seeming more like something found in a cottage in the country rather than in a menacing black castle. When Alucard had finally wrestled the rest of the cork from the bottle and brought it to the table with two glasses, he noticed Sypha’s eyes wandering curiously around the room.

“My father never had a need for a kitchen, the reasons for which I’m sure are obvious to you.” He poured a glass for each of them, sliding Sypha’s across the table to her as he sat down. “This room was only added after my mother was in the picture. If it feels out of place, it is. I’ve always liked it in here, though.”

“The domestic Lord Dracula, a doting husband.” She took a sip. “And father, I’m sure.”

“Indeed,” Alucard said, sipping from his own glass. “How is the wine? Perfect as you’d thought?”

“It tastes just like wine,” she said.

“You’re not wrong.”

Sypha looked to the counter, where several bottles of clear liquor sat nearly empty. She picked one up and turned it over in her hand.

“Does this have more than 70 percent alcohol?” she asked.

“It does.”

“Good,” she said, standing from her seat. 

She pulled Alucard’s bag over her head and plopped it down on the table before Alucard even realized she’d had it the whole time. Sypha pulled a clean rag from his supplies, retrieving with it some of his medical things as well— gauze dressings and a bit of adhesive. 

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, Alucard, but I need you to take off your shirt,” she said as she poured some of the contents of the bottle over the rag.

“Sypha, you don’t have to do that. I can take care of it myself later,” he protested.

“I keep telling you, I know I don’t have to. I _want_ to help you.” She stood defiantly in front of him as he sighed and pushed his chair from the table, angling it toward her. 

He gently peeled his shirt from the four still-tender wounds along his side and pulled it over his head. He was a bit surprised to see how bad they were when he actually got a look at them. Sypha winced sympathetically and took a hefty sip of her wine before kneeling down beside him, gently lifting his arm and resting his elbow atop the back of the chair, giving her full access to his injury. He hissed as she began lightly dabbing at them with the cloth, her eyebrows drawn together as though she could feel it too.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to do this earlier,” she said, applying a bit of pressure to the rag. “We were so short on time and I didn’t get to—“

“I know, Sypha. It’s alright. _Ah—_ “ He recoiled reflexively as a new spark of pain shot through his side. “I’d have done the same if the roles were reversed.”

“Of course. I just wanted you to know I felt bad. I wish I could have helped more.”

“You’ve done more than your fair share of helping, don’t worry.”

He watched intently as she cleaned his side for a bit, the pain beginning to dull as he became accustomed to it. He could tell that Sypha was deep in thought as she set down the rag and began to place gauze over the newly cleaned wounds, but he hesitated to ask. She hesitated to say, though keeping it in didn’t quite seem to line up with her loud mouth’s plans.

“I don’t want you to think that we left you here because we didn’t want to be around you,” she blurted, surprised even at herself.

“Sypha, you’ve only had two sips of wine, how can you be so candid already?” He punctuated his question with a chuckle, trying his best to play it off as a joke, but he couldn’t hide the way his heart wrenched.

“We really thought you wanted to be alone for a while,” she said, ignoring his attempt to diffuse the situation.

It was true that she’d only drunk but a few sips of wine, but it seemed the journey’s exhaustion had done a number on her filter, rendering her helpless but to spew all of the things she’d been thinking and feeling, but hadn’t had the courage to address directly. She slid back into her seat, holding Alucard’s eyes as she dragged her chair so it faced his directly.

“But every day, when I pictured you here alone, I— _we—_ regretted that decision more and more,” she continued.

“I wasn’t alone.” He cringed as he heard himself sounding so accusatory toward her, in the midst of an apology, no less.

“I know. I don’t entirely know what that means for you, but I’m sorry. I’m sorry we weren’t here. It wasn’t fair.”

Alucard stood abruptly, turning to go. “I don’t need pity, Sypha. And we don’t need to talk about this.” 

The words felt like poison on his tongue. His eyes fell to the floor and he gritted his teeth. He could feel anger welling within himself. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but his heart had begun racing, his mind lashing out at him, screaming for him to unleash everything on his unsuspecting and well-intentioned friend. It wasn’t her that he was angry at. He knew that. Those he was angry at had already paid their price. But something in his gut just couldn’t let it go. Beyond the despair and melancholy, there was blanketed rage, and only now did he have anyone to take it out on besides himself. He presumed that was a bit of his father’s genetics rearing their head, but it didn’t matter. It was beyond him now.

“I don’t pity you, Alucard.”

What surprised him the most was that Sypha had hardly reacted to his sudden movement and how steady her voice remained. He could see her studying his scars more brazenly than she had before. He curled in on himself a bit, feeling suddenly self-conscious. He did his best to hide it, turning his back to her as he pulled his shirt back over his head, concealing himself again.

“It’s alright, really. It is what it is,” he said pointedly.

“It’s not. We never stop thinking about you, Alucard.”

“Don’t say stupid things like that,” he growled.

His lip twitched, almost snarling, as furious tears threatened his eyes. He knew Sypha could see it, but at this point there was nothing he could do to hide from her.

“Even Trevor told me how much he missed you every day.”

“ _Trevor_ missed me?” Alucard scoffed sarcastically, nearly laughing. “That’s a first.”

“In his own little Trevor way,” Sypha replied with a smile. “If he wasn’t such a boar he’d tell you himself, but I’m telling you for him. I know what he means.”

“Interesting.” He wasn’t really sure what else to say. It was hard to stay angry through her unwillingness to engage his anger, even though he desperately wanted to. Or at least, he’d thought that he did. 

“It’s ok if you don’t believe me. And it’s also ok if you don’t forgive us. But we want to try to make it up to you by being here now, if you’ll have us.”

God, it sounded so cheesy and pitiful to him. He’d only ever heard such tacky dialogue in the theater on the rare occasion he’d been permitted to go. But somehow, this felt different. The acting had always felt overly faked and disingenuous to him, but right now he could sense just how different it was from that. It felt real.

“Are you inviting yourselves to live in my castle?” he smirked, his eyebrow raised.

“Of course not. Here, out there, wherever. It doesn’t matter. I know we were all tired and things were a bit crazy before, but I meant it when I said the three of us, together forever.”

“Tch.” A single tear fell from his eye, though he kept his composure surprisingly well. “You forget, Sypha. As a vampire, forever is a long time for me.”

“Well…” she struggled, grappling with the concept. “For as long as we can, then.”

“For as long as we can…” he repeated.

Alucard ruminated on the phrase, losing all will to fight. “For as long as we can” was a hopeless concept, indefinite yet finite, and the inevitable end gave him chills. He knew even at his young age that he’d been cursed with long life, destined to follow his father’s footsteps in outliving everyone he loved or cared about. It was a fate he’d seldom had reason to dwell on, but now, approaching it face to face, Alucard felt small. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the anxiety that was stirred in him, nor was he sure that he was even capable of grappling with it.

“For as long as we can,” though, was also optimistic. It meant to the full extent of their hope, all of the days that they could, they’d be together. There wasn’t anything stopping the dread of being alone when his loved ones were gone, but he knew that the memories that they would make together until that fated day could carry him for more lifetimes than he could hope to survive on only one lifetime of misery. 

“I think I can live with that,” he answered finally.

Sypha reached out to hold his face in her hands, gently caressing his cheek bones beneath her thumbs. It was then that he realized for the first time that Sypha was crying, tears stealthily slipping down her cheeks before dropping between them. 

“Good,” she said.

Alucard suddenly felt ashamed for his near outburst.

“I’m sorry for being so… so brusque. I just…” Alucard sighed. “When you were gone, it was…just...”

Sypha watched him search for words, but she didn’t let him suffer for long.

“You don’t have to tell me, Alucard. It’s ok.”

“I want to, but…” 

“Well you have as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere,” she said, squeezing his hands before dragging her chair back to its original spot where her wineglass had sat untouched for too long. “Except just over here to finish this bottle of wine. And then maybe another one after that.”

Alucard smiled, a welcomed change. He raised his glass.

“I’ll drink to that.”

*****

After hours of increasingly drunk discussion, Alucard was content to say that things were good. They had sat and caroused and laughed, and true to Sypha’s prediction, finished not one, but two more bottles of wine after their first. Though Alucard’s tolerance for alcohol was always unnaturally high owing to his dhampir blood, he was sure that Sypha was only able to handle this much alcohol as well as she was because of the influence of Trevor’s debauchery, a thought which made him chuckle.

When finally they stood, ready to check on Trevor one last time before turning in for some well-deserved sleep, Sypha was a bit wobbly. They had to make quite a distant journey out one of the smaller, more secretive rear entrances to the castle to a well nearby, which Alucard was fortunate enough to have discovered abandoned and still fully functional. They retrieved a few buckets of water, though the ones Sypha carried were considerably smaller than Alucard’s. She held her own for quite a while on their long way back to the bedroom, though she did eventually rely on Alucard’s steadying arm to help her along the rest of the way as he carried two heavy buckets in one hand. He laughed as Sypha tripped over her own foot, trying to stay as quiet as possible as they grew closer to the room. They finally reached the doorway and crept in, careful not to make any excessive noise. Or at least, they were until Sypha tripped once again, letting out a loud yelp as she collided with the ground.

They both looked to the bed as Trevor began to stir, their hearts sinking. Alucard hurried to his side followed quickly by Sypha as Trevor weakly opened his eyes, trying hard to get his vision to focus on them.

“Alucard..?”

“Right here, Trevor,” he answered

“Nd… Sypha?”

“Of course.” She sat down next to him, feeling his forehead with the back of her hand.

“How do you feel, Trevor?” she asked.

“Like I’m ready to run a race… obviously…” His voice was strained, but his sarcasm cut through anyway.

Alucard rested the back of his hand on Trevor’s forehead.

“Well, unfortunately, it seems like he’s not going to die after all,” Alucard joked, though internally he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh no, too bad,” Sypha joined in, plopping down on the bed next to him. 

“You both are so lucky that…” Trevor thought for a moment. “Fuck it… I’m too tired.”

Sypha let herself fall over, kicking her shoes to the floor and curling up beside Trevor. “Ditto that. It’s nap time,” she said with a yawn as she pushed her feet under the blankets, shimmying her way down.

Reciprocating their exhaustion, Alucard began to head for the door.

“Well, you two, I’ll be down the hall to the left if you need me—“

“Wait, Alucard!” Sypha interrupted.

“Hmm?” He paused in his tracks.

“You could stay here. The bed is big enough for all of us.”

Alucard was frozen a moment, waiting for Trevor’s resurgence of energy to appear, allowing him to verbalize his protest to his heart’s content. To Alucard’s surprise, no such outburst came.

“Well, Trevor, this is the quietest I’ve heard you in a long while,” he said snarkily, though he was secretly hoping hard that Trevor, too, wanted him to stay. He’d slept too many nights in this castle alone for his liking.

“I couldn’t care less,” Trevor grumbled.

“Is that so?” Alucard prodded. “Sypha said that you missed me. Is that true?”

“Just get in the fucking bed if that’s what you want…” Trevor said, his eyes lazily shutting.

Trevor was quietly grumbling, though he hardly had the energy even to do that. Despite his obvious suffering, Sypha needled him in the side with her knuckle, prompting Trevor to hiss, curse, and recoil as far as he could, which was, needless to say, not very far.

“Tell him how much you missed him,” Sypha demanded.

“I never said… _ugh_ I said he was a pain in my ass,” Trevor groaned.

“They mean the same thing,” Sypha said. 

“Alucard…” Trevor said, exasperated. “If it will make her shut up, then I will say that I did not entirely love the lack of your presence.”

Trevor peeked an eye open to see that neither Alucard nor Sypha had moved and were, apparently, incredibly unsatisfied by his answer. Perhaps it was the fever still ravaging his brain, but he did feel a pang of veracity in his mind, and the urge to be genuine for just a minute overcame him, although he did only allow himself this moment preceded by a large, performative sigh, true to fashion.

“I _suppose_ you could say that I did miss you a bit. And I guess… I also would like to say thank you for… you know… saving us. And for taking care of us.” He groaned loudly again. “Especially me.”

He threw his arm down on the free side of the bed with his palm in the air, inviting Alucard in.

“I would like it if you would stay,” he finished.

Alucard was surprised by Trevor’s honesty, though he could tell it was begrudgingly given. Yet still, he couldn’t help but be moved by it. He knew through his feverish haze, Trevor couldn’t see the small smile perking the corners of his mouth, which he quickly hid, attempting desperately to keep his air of indifference. He had always hesitated to place the sanctity of his emotional well-being in the hands of others, and despite all of the perfectly valid reasons for his continued caution, he didn’t think twice with Trevor and Sypha. 

To do so seemed to him to be perfectly natural.

He sat down next to Trevor, who did not move his arm, and slipped off his boots. Lazily, so as not to seem too eager, he turned over toward them and laid on his side, propped up on his elbow. He looked hesitantly at Trevor’s arm, wondering if he’d move it. Or did he not intend to move it? The anxiety of misreading the situation gripped Alucard’s heart firmly, tightening his chest. For a moment, he thought to simply move it himself, assuming that Trevor just didn’t have the energy left to do it on his own. Barring that, he quickly realized that he had two options: lay down and snuggle up to Trevor, who would then push him away and admonish him for misreading the situation and getting so friendly, or adopt a quick penchant for the dramatic and snuggle up to Trevor under the guise of annoying him, still only to be pushed away and admonished, but while saving a bit of face.

As he was not one for theatrics, he chose the former, dreading the impending misunderstanding and chastising,

Much to his surprise, as he curled into Trevor, though he felt quite forward, Trevor didn’t pull away, nor did he yell or groan in disgust. Rather, he wrapped his arm around Alucard, resting his calloused hand atop Alucard’s shoulder, inviting him closer—an invitation which he did not ignore. As he made himself comfortable, nearly flush with Trevor’s side, he felt Trevor shiver.

“You’re like ice,” Trevor mumbled before Alucard could worry about his fever worsening into chills.

“Sorry,” Alucard said, a bit disappointed as he tried to pull away.

He was stopped by the strongest grip that Trevor could muster.

“Don’t,” he whispered. “It feels nice.”

Relief washed over him as he finally allowed himself full access to them, resting his hand delicately on Trevor’s chest. As surreal as it was, it seemed perfectly natural when Sypha placed her hand over his, interlacing her fingers with his. Alucard could feel Sypha’s toes tickling his calf where she’d thrown her leg over Trevor’s, though he didn’t seem to mind much.

Alucard wanted to say something, but he was lost for words. Nothing he could say would make sense of what he felt, though surely he could ruin it much more easily. Though the more he dwelled on it, the more he knew what he wanted to say. He quickly became certain of it. 

He nestled his head into Trevor’s shoulder, giving Sypha’s fingers a small, loving squeeze.

“I love you both,” he said. “And I’m glad you’re back.”

“We love you, too,” Sypha answered, giving his hand a little returning squeeze. “Right, Trevor?”

“Mhmm,” he grunted.

With her free hand, Sypha jabbed him in the ribs again with her knuckle.

“ _ACK!_ Fine… I _love_ you, too,” he declared, trying to sound as annoyed as he could, though Alucard believed that he meant it, even if it had to be needled out of him. His belief was only confirmed when Trevor turned his head, nuzzling his face into Alucard’s soft hair. 

Alucard was certain he was imagining it, but he thought for a moment that he felt Trevor softly kiss the top of his head, as though he didn’t want Alucard to feel it. As if it were just for him.

Alucard knew he felt cold to them, but inside he felt warmer than he had in months. He wanted to stay like this forever, just the three of them, entwined in each other. They fit together so well, as if they were made for one another. As the three of them drifted effortlessly off to sleep, Alucard felt perfectly at ease, savoring each rise and fall of Trevor’s chest, each small, sleepy snore from Sypha. Even when Trevor’s body relaxed and his arm fell away, Alucard was completely secure.

That night, and for many more afterward, Alucard would sleep well, held tightly in the arms of two loves.

His family. His forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to keep this story SFW, so if you're here for NSFW OT3 I'm sorry ;( I will, however, probably do an NSFW one shot sequel, so stay tuned for that!
> 
> Thanks for everyone's patience! Hope you enjoy!


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